Beautiful Lies
by lokishorcrux
Summary: When Loki escapes prison, Darcy thought her biggest problem would be putting up with the idiot. When justice follows Loki to Earth, Darcy finds herself entangled in something far worse than anything meeting Thor could have prepared her for. Set after avengers and will cover events in Thor: The Dark World. Tasertricks. Loki/Darcy. Strong Language.
1. Chapter 1: Looking For A Sign

"But it had to have come from Asgard." Jane said as she pulled the SUV onto the main road. Darcy's fingers tapped along to the drum beat of the song blaring through her ears from the one headphone she had in. She normally turned the volume right up to drown Jane out as they drove to work as the latter usually lamented the loss of her boyfriend, Thor or spoke of some new scientific breakthrough she'd thought of while pouring her cereal. Either way- yawn.

Today however she'd turned it down low enough so that she could tune in or out as she pleased. Her hand draped out of the open window as they drove through miles of New Mexico desert. It was eight thirty and already burning hot. The air con in the car was broken, again, so all of the windows were down to entice in the dry breeze though all it really did was create more noise that Jane felt the need to shout above.

"Puh-lease." Darcy told her, taking a sip of coffee from her travel mug. "You find one note-"

"In my shoe!" Jane interrupted. "Why would the note be in my shoe?"

The hand that had been tapping on the window moved to rub her temples. It was too early in the morning to handle Jane. It was times like these that Darcy missed Erik most. He'd always been able to handle most of Jane's obsessive fixations, the only exception being when Thor had visited. Darcy however had about 2% of the things she said registered by Jane and of those a further 2% were actually listened to.

"You're constantly making notes, Jane." Darcy sighed. "And they turn up everywhere. Remember the time you set the toaster on fire?"

Jane's face flushed slightly pink as she drove but she remained determined. "It wasn't my handwriting. I know that handwriting."

"What because he scribbled on your notebook? Jane, he was hardly writing essays while he crashed here." Darcy raised her eyebrow at her friend. As usual Jane remained oblivious to the hinted suggestion behind Darcy's words. She took another sip of coffee, silently lamenting the fact that no one seemed to share her dirty mind.

"I know that handwriting." Jane repeated.

"Jesus Jane, slow down." Darcy told her, having just seen the speedometer on the car. It was hard to tell on the long straight roads how fast they were going but she was certain Jane's old car hadn't driven this fast since...well ever.

"We have to get to SHIELD." She said, pressing her lips together in determination and accelerating.

"I am not going to die over some stupid note!" Darcy shouted back.

"You haven't even seen it!" Jane replied, reaching into the pocket of her jeans and pulling out a crumpled piece of parchment coloured paper.

"For fuck's sake," Darcy shrieked. "If you're going this fast at least keep both hands on the wheel!"

"Just take the note." Jane snapped. Darcy glared at her as she snatched the note from her hands, relief rushing through her as she saw Jane put her other hand back on the wheel.

Darcy examined it briefly. It was about the same size as a post-it note but three times as thick, like the kind of posh paper that ought only be reserved for cursive writing detailing a meeting with the Queen of England.

One word was printed on it in a bold hand. "AFTER" Darcy read. "Wow, yep definitely from Thor, definitely listing his imminent return yes let us run off to SHIELD whilst breaking as many traffic laws as we can."

Jane rolled her eyes. "Either way it's clearly not one of my notes."

Darcy shrugged. She agreed but wasn't going to tell Jane that.

"What does it mean though?" Jane continued. Darcy turned the volume up on her iPod. She was used to Jane using her presence as an excuse to talk to herself. "I mean 'after' what? Is something..."

At maximum volume, Darcy's iPod had finally succeeded in drowning Jane out. She finished the rest of her coffee and put the thermos in the cup holder, waiting for the caffeine buzz to set in. She was very much the antithesis of a morning person, her usual chirpy personality completely non-existent until at least eleven in the morning.

By the time the song finished Jane was pulling the car into the derelict multi-storey car park that served as one of the entrances to SHIELD's New Mexico base. The barrier rose for them and they followed the sloping base deeper into the compound. Inside the air was stale but just as hot.

Her ipod turned itself off as it always did when they entered, the only evidence Darcy had of the security measures in the car park. She'd always wondered what would happen if she tried entering in a different car but wasn't foolish enough to try.

"So you're just going to go marching into Fury's office and demand to see him over a note?" Darcy asked. They were a few floors down now. A wall of the empty concrete room sank into the floor to reveal the actual car park behind, in all of its metal and white concrete glory.

"Yep." Jane said resolutely.

Darcy grinned. "Can I watch?" She could only imagine the look on Fury's face if that happened.

Jane didn't reply as she parked the car at the other end of the car park in her designated space. She was, unfortunately, far from a high position in SHIELD. As her assistant, Darcy was worth even less. Heck she didn't even get her own space. Not that she had a car but she felt she should have a space on principle.  
She slid out of the car and closed the door behind her, the sound of the door slamming echoing in the large room. It was more like how she imagined the aircraft holder would look, not that she'd ever been allowed access to that part of SHIELD. She tugged on the sleeves of her purple jumper so that they covered her hands. It was September and therefore boiling in New Mexico but SHIELD somehow always managed to overdo the air-conditioning. Perhaps they felt that keeping the place colder than the arctic would make it more space-agey.

"We can't just ignore it." Jane said as they walked back across the room to the entrance to the main building. Somehow Darcy doubted she was talking about the heating.

"It's a piece of paper that makes no sense." Darcy told her. "Maybe it's there from Saturday. You'd be surprised the sorts of things people give you instead of numbers. I once gave out the entire lyrics to Hakuna Matata in single letter notes."

She'd finally managed to drag Jane to Santa Fe for a night out. She'd gone practically insane for the first year of Thor's absence with trying to find him. SHIELD had given her a lab so that she didn't have to work out of her living room so she'd decided to move into the lab instead. It was two months before Darcy could convince her that showering in the bathroom sinks was not aiding her research. Getting her to a bar had been practically impossible.

"I didn't wear my trainers on Saturday." Jane said. The classier job had done nothing to her wardrobe, she still dressed in her usual trainers, jeans and flannel shirt ensemble. That was one of the good things about SHIELD. No dress code unless you were one of the agents or guards. Who cared if the scientists dressed like bums as long as they kept doing the work?

The doors to the corridor full of lifts which would take them down to the labs was the same colour as the walls. The only thing that marked it as a door was the rectangular outline which looked like a crack in the wall. More high tech stuff opened it. Darcy thought it was overkill but it did make the job seem a bit more exciting.

Only this time there was something else at the door.

"Ohmygod." Darcy said stopping. Jane, who had again been questioning the metaphorical resonances of the mysterious note, noticed Darcy stop and turned to look at what she was staring at.

Her eyes widened in shock and she ran towards it, Darcy being snapped back to her senses following just a few steps behind.

A body was lying in front of the doors. He wasn't one of the guards, he wasn't wearing the uniform, which begged the question of how he had got there. The two women crouched down by him. He was tall and swathed in black leather and dark green mesh with countless buckles and straps. His skin was so pale that Darcy felt sure he must be dead, though perhaps, she thought, it only seemed that way in comparison to the mane of inky black hair.

He was handsome, gorgeous, in fact with his strong jaw line, high cheekbones and otherwise carved looking features. However, his face and hands, the only parts of him not draped in leather, were covered in bruises and deep cuts that were still seeping blood. One hideous gash around his left eye made Darcy feel as though she would be sick.

Jane was still, staring at the body in shock. Summoning her courage, Darcy gingerly picked up his wrist and turned it over in her hand, unwilling to cause anymore damage to the injuries.

"He's still warm." She said. She pressed her fingers to a thin blue vein on his wrist and held her breath for what felt like an eternity before she felt a faint but discernible heart beat pulse through. "That's a pulse." She sighed in relief, although partly because it meant she hadn't stumbled upon a corpse.  
This information seemed to spur Jane into action. She leant forwards to crouch next to Darcy, over the man.

"I need something to stem...this." She said, gesturing helplessly to the gash on his eye which was the only wound to still be bleeding heavily. "Then we can get help."

"I have some tissues in my bag." Darcy said, standing up and stepping away so that she could rummage properly for the pack of Kleenex. Her hand brushed against the plastic tissue packet and she pulled it out. Grappling for a tissue, she was halfway to handing it to Jane before she realised that it wasn't a tissue at all. It was a note similar to the one Jane had found, identical in shape, size and colour. All that was different was the word. She read it a few times.

This time she was positive she would be sick.

"Um Jane." She said weakly.

"What?" Jane snapped, looking at the man who Darcy didn't think she could look at without actually bringing up her breakfast.

"Look." Darcy said, holding the sheet out.

"No way." Jane said incredulously, jumping up and taking the sheet from Darcy. "You got one too?"

"Just read it."

Darcy watched as Jane's eyes widened in horror as she looked from the sheet to the man. "Loki?" She read.

* * *

Hey I hope you like it so far. I have quite a lot written of this story so I'll hopefully be updating a lot. Chapter title from Orphans by Jack's Mannequin.

Bea x


	2. Chapter 2: Keep Believing It

"Let me guess," Nick Fury drawled as he entered the room. "Y'all got a note."

Jane and Darcy who were sat behind the table of the small interrogation room shared a look of surprise. "Yeah," Jane said, turning back to Fury. "How did you know?"

He took the seat on the opposite side of the table and leant forward. "Because you ain't the only ones." He placed a piece of paper on the table and pushed it towards them. The women leant forwards to read it. The word "LOOK" was printed on it in the same handwriting. "Now," Fury said. "I don't know if he's tryin' to be funny or-"

"What do you mean?" Darcy interrupted. She still felt nauseated from earlier, the fact that she'd touched..._that_. She pushed the thought away, focusing on Fury and trying not to be angry at his usual beating around the bush.

Fury leant back in his chair. "Huh. You really don't know." He said. It was a statement, not a question and apparently Jane was just as annoyed as Darcy was.

"Of course we don't know." She snapped. "You had your cronies march us straight in here!"

As soon as they'd realised who the man was they'd summoned the guards. It was surprisingly easy to do, all they had to do was type the wrong password into the door. A SWAT team had come running. They'd all recognised him immediately which made Darcy feel even more useless and stupid. Unreasonable thoughts, she knew, seeming as she'd never actually seen as much as a picture of the god but still.

Orders had been barked and the next thing they knew they were in the interrogation room awaiting the arrival of Fury.

Fury grinned. "Right." He said. Darcy and Jane gave him identical looks of hate which just made him chuckle slightly. "It's ironic, right because it says "look" and then this shit happens. Well I guess I'm looking. And he's on the security tapes, he just appears there about five minutes before you arrive, a load of light and there he is."

"Then why didn't anyone see him?" Jane asked.

"Yeah," Darcy agreed. "It's like Big Brother in here, all the cameras."

"Well that's the mystery." Fury said. "I can see him but no one else can. All of the security guards say that he doesn't appear on camera until you grab his wrist."

Darcy's mouth gaped open a bit. "Me?"

Fury laughed. "Ain't like anyone else is going around willingly checking a mass murderer's pulse."

She felt her stomach twist and opened her mouth to protest but Fury waved her objections away.

"I know, I know. You didn't know who he was. Well given that you two are about the only ones here that weren't here for New York-"

"Hardly our fault." Jane muttered bitterly. She was still annoyed about being sent off to Norway only to arrive to no one knowing what they were doing there. Darcy supposed she ought to be annoyed too but it was hard to be too disappointed about missing the exploits of a mass murderer to spend the weekend in a ski lodge with a _very_ attractive Norwegian SHIELD soldier.

A sudden burst of pain across her head made her gasp in shock. Her vision went black and she gripped the table, gritting her teeth against the knives stabbing her skull.

"Darcy!" Jane shouted, panicked. She felt a hand on her shoulder and all at once the pain was gone, so abruptly that Darcy wondered if she had imagined it."Oh my God are you all right?"

"Fine." Darcy gasped, trying to get her breath back. "I'm fine."

"We should get you to a doctor." Jane said.

"I'm fine." Jane told her, agitated. And she was, she felt fine, even the memory of pain was fading. "Just cramps."

Fury looked immediately uncomfortable, the effect that Darcy had desired.

"Yeah..." He said, obviously trying to change the subject. "Well it had to be the note. I found it in my coffee this morning, thought it was some joke from the canteen staff. Ah well I'm sure they'll be happier working somewhere else anyway." Fury gestured to his note. "I showed you mine."

Darcy reluctantly presented hers which she'd been gripping tightly in her hand since she found it. Jane pulled her crumpled square from her pocket. Fury took them both and aligned them with his, a deeply etched frown appearing on his face.

"No chance it could be 'AFTER LOKI, LOOK' is there?" Darcy suggested half-heartedly, knowing full well there wasn't.

"Look after Loki?" Fury growled. "Does he think we're running a motherfucking hotel?"

There was a knock on the door before it opened slightly. A young female guard poked her head in, she looked rather nervous but spoke calmly. "Um sir, there's a problem in the east wing."

"What another one?" Fury asked, annoyed and slightly disbelieving.

"It's the...well it's him, sir." She clarified. They all knew there was only one "him" that she could be talking about.

Fury stood up, pushing his chair back from the table. "Yeah yeah, I'm coming."

Darcy jumped to her feet too. "We're coming too." She announced.

Fury turned and glared at her. She didn't know what he hoped to accomplish, he ought to have known by now just how stubborn she was. "Sit back down." He told her, agitated.

"Yeah right." She said, walking round the table. Jane stood up too.

"That is an order." He growled.

She raised her eyebrows and folded her arms.

Fury rolled his eye. "Fine." He muttered and stormed out of the door.

Darcy grinned at Jane who looked at her impressed. "You've got to teach me how to do that." She murmured.

They only had to walk a short way down the corridor before they found the problem. Two guards were holding Loki up, him still unconscious and them looking like they were hoping he'd stay that way. She noticed that his hands were cuffed and supposed he scared them even as injured as he was. A scientist was standing watching them. Darcy recognised one of the guards and hoped for a moment that Loki did wake up and kill him, Dan was the biggest arsehole in SHIELD.

He was in charge of the security on level seventeen, the floor which happened to have all of the science labs on. Nothing had ever happened between them, he just liked to constantly sneer at Darcy that a monkey could do her job, that SHIELD could easily fire her and just generally undermine her importance, in short nothing Darcy didn't already know. In return Darcy had told him a computer could do his job better than he could causing him to go out of his way to make her life hell. Oh joy.

"What the hell is going on here?" Fury thundered.

"Ahh, sir." The scientist greeted. Darcy realised she was a doctor rather than just one of SHIELD's many lab workers. "I looked at his wounds like you said, well the visible ones at least. They all appear to be healing remarkably well except for the gash on his eye. Were he human he'd lose the sight in it and we'd have to deepen the gash before...well anyway I've just stitched it up for now but I recommended keeping him under observation so they were just taking him to the holding cells."

"So what's the problem?" Fury asked annoyed.

"Well," The woman said. "They can't move him."

"What do you mean they can't move him?" His voice echoed through the hall.

"Well," Dan said. "Look." He and the other guard stumbled forwards a few steps. They looked at each other shocked. Fury raised an eyebrow at them, Darcy felt jealous, she'd always wanted to be able to do that. "Well we couldn't...I guess we'll go." She had to resist a smile at Dan's embarrassment.

They dragged Loki down the corridor before stopping as though they'd hit a wall. The air around them rippled like in the heat at the exact same instant that pain flared back up in Darcy's head like her skull would split. More prepared this time she felt her fingers curl into fists until her finger nails broke the skin of her palms. And then it was gone. The guards stumbled backwards.

"What the hell was that?" Fury asked.

"We don't know, that's what happened last time." The doctor said shaking her head.

"Forget about the cell, get him in that room now." Fury told them. They opened the door and walked in with the others following. All but Darcy who was still staring at the spot where the ripples in the air had appeared.

"What?" Jane asked her as she noticed that she wasn't following. The pain was gone, all except for her hands which were stinging painfully, the cuts deeper than Darcy thought possible to make with finger nails. She didn't know what to tell her though, she wasn't quite sure she knew what was happening herself.

"Come on." Darcy said, pushing past her into the room. It was another of the smaller interrogation rooms of SHIELD, the six people only just fit comfortably inside. The back wall was a one way mirror though Darcy doubted anyone was actually on the other side. A metallic table stood in the centre with a metal chair behind it which Loki sat slumped in, his cuffed wrists connected with another chain to a bolt in the floor.

Jane was watching her from the corner of her eye but she pretended not to notice. Her arms were crossed with her hands gripping her upper arms as she watched Fury send away the doctor and guards.

"What now?" Darcy asked him, determined not to think about what had just happened.

"We wake the bastard up." Fury said, striding towards Loki and deftly slapping him across the face, the sound echoing deafeningly in the small room. "Jesus, that felt good." He said.

Darcy could barely contain a smile herself, the wounds going from pity to a source of grim satisfaction now that she knew who he was. She'd seen the news coverage of New York. She'd watched the survivors' stories and the gradually rising casualty count and the candles lit for the dead covering whole blocks and the silence in SHIELD because everyone knew at least someone who'd died. And opposite her sat the dick that had caused it all.

Of course SHIELD had covered up Loki's involvement so that they didn't have to explain that he wouldn't be facing human justice. As far as the world was concerned, it was simply the Chitauri deciding to attack.

He stirred slightly before his eyes flickered open. He looked round the room curiously before his startling green eyes landed on Fury, Jane and finally her. A slow grin unfurled across his lips, pulling his scars grotesquely and causing adrenaline to pump through Darcy's veins. That was the grin of a predator and despite the chains Darcy felt like a cornered animal.

"I wish," Fury said slowly. "That it was nice to see you again, though I have to say that I'm liking your new look."

Loki said nothing but looked down, his grin falling away into a slight smirk.

"Care to tell me how this happened? I'd like to shake the guy's hand." Fury told him.

Again he remained silent. Darcy realised her stomach was tying itself in knots in anticipation. From what she'd heard, this guy was definitely not one to keep quiet.

"If you ain't gonna answer our questions we have other ways to find out. Ways that make that look like a few scratches."

Loki looked up, the smile back on his face. "You know," He said. His voice sent shivers down Darcy's spine like shards of ice. She'd expected something like Thor's, loud and obtrusive but his was more quietly refined, the kind that snuck up on you to slit your throat rather than punching you in the face. "The last time I woke up surrounded by a group of people, they were a lot more intimidating than you."

"Yeah well," Fury replied, clearly happy that he'd replied though trying not to show it. "I can easily get your little friends back here. I'm sure you'd love another slamdown with Banner."

Loki's lip curled into a sneer that made him look, in Darcy's opinion, like some spoiled rich kid. "Why not?" He asked airily. "I'm sure the beast could do no worse than this."

"And what _did_ cause this?" Darcy asked.

His eyes snapped to her and she had the uncomfortable impression that he saw all of her weaknesses with a single glance. "You," He sneered. "I am unacquainted with."

"And I asked _you_ a question." She snapped back.

He laughed, a dry chuckle that seemed remarkably out of place."Very well. I believe it is referred to as 'Asgardian Justice.'" He spat. "Now who are you?"

"Darcy Lewis." She mumbled. To her surprise the grin returned from earlier and he looked from her to Jane.

"Then you," he said, his eyes boring into Jane. "Must be Jane Foster."

"That's Dr Jane Foster." Jane replied haughtily.

For some reason Darcy expected him to laugh again but instead his eyes surveyed Jane hungrily, not with lust like most men did but something a thousand times more menacing. She would normally have been pissed off over being completely disregarded for Jane, something unfortunately common, yet for once she did not envy Jane. She could happily take all the attention from the mad god.

She'd imagined Loki as a slightly smaller Thor, just as brash and fight ready. The cunning man before her was infinitely scarier. She could only imagine the kind of thoughts running through his mind.

"Yeah well now that we're all introduced," Fury growled. "Would you like to tell us how you got here?"

Loki shrugged nonchalantly, clearly enjoying making Fury angry. He picked at his fingernails distractedly.

"I could put you in a cell right now unless you answer." Fury barked. Loki raised an eyebrow at him sending another childish spur of jealousy through her, even the insane Norse god could do it?

He raised his handcuffs to Fury. "You chained me while I slept and you expect me to fear you?" He scoffed. "Your terror is written plainly in your every actions. You threaten captivity yet treat me as though I could just as easily escape. Well the latter is correct, you have no cell that I could not leave as easily as if it were an unlocked room. The question you should be asking is why I am still here."

"Well why is that?" Fury asked.

Loki's lips were pressed into a thin line but the corners were twitching, he was obviously enjoying himself. Sprawled in the metal chair as though it were a throne, that sly smile on his face, Darcy could forget the cuts, bruises and the handcuffs and see him as the villain that caused the destruction in New York. She tapped her fingers on her arms nervously.

"I told you once." Loki told him. "That an ant had no quarrel with a boot."

"Yeah I remember." Fury growled.

"Well the boot is only as powerful as the foot."

"Enough metaphorical crap." Fury snapped. "What are you doing here?"

Loki leant back in the chair smiling. "I can throw you in a cell." Fury reminded him.

Loki sprang forwards in the chair. "Director," He hissed. "We both know if you wanted me in a cell then that is where I would be so I can only assume that you can't. Why don't you tell me what is going on here and I'll fill in the blanks."

Fury folded his arms, Darcy knew he wouldn't be happy being ordered around by Loki but even he had to see that it was the only way they would get anywhere. "We got these notes." Fury said, pushing the few squares of paper across the table. "We're assuming they're from Thor."

Loki read them, his eyebrows rising ever so slightly. "He would." He said amused, the way a parent might praise a child's awful drawing.

"Then you appear looking like hell." Fury continued as though Loki hadn't spoken. "No one else can see you until you're discovered and then we physically can't move you."

Loki smirked self-deprecatingly. "Last night Thor visited me in my cell. I was still recovering from that day's...re-educating. He told me he was getting me out of there. I laughed and told him that he'd never be brave enough to defy the All-Father. I fell unconscious in the next session slightly quicker than I had the day before and woke up here. I suppose Thor's plan worked...although I would have preferred Alfheim to Midgard."

"And that's all you know?" Fury asked.

Loki gave him a condescending look. "That's all I experienced but any idiot can fill in the rest. Thor must have mustered some dark energy from somewhere or perhaps accessed the tesseract and transported me here. At the same time he sends you these notes, why I do not know. He always has been a foolish believer in hope. Of course he still doesn't trust me so he places a binding charm on me, that's why you couldn't move me because I can't move further than a certain distance from whoever is on the receiving end of this charm."

Fury looked as though Loki had just explained that he liked to cross dress.

"How do we know who has this charm?" Darcy asked, her heart beating slightly faster.

Loki nodded his head as though impressed. "The charm enables more than just a restriction of the distance I can move. Whatever physically injures this person would injure me too and vice versa, after the charm was placed obviously, they won't have all this. They probably would have experienced extreme pain when I encountered the barrier. At a guess I'd say a guard, all you have to do is find them and you can throw me in the cell with them nearby. Everyone's happy."  
Darcy's face had paled but she could think of nothing to say.

"And you'd just comply?" Fury asked sceptically.

"Or what," Loki snapped. She could hear something akin to pain in his voice. "Get attacked by your avengers or sent back to Asgard?"

Fury smirked. "Nice to know you fear something."

Loki glared at him but said nothing. Darcy found his smugness unbelievable. Would simple flattery blind him so much? Loki would never admit such a weakness, everything from New York to his barely concealed smirk told her so. _He's manipulating you!_ She wanted to scream.

She was still too shocked to say anything though. Even if she did they wouldn't listen. She was just Darcy the stupid political science student who got lucky as Jane's assistant. And besides, she thought, she had bigger problems.

"And how do we find this person you're bound to?" Fury asked.

Loki opened his hands to show several faint crescent moons on his palms. "I suggest you look for someone with marks like these."

Darcy recalled the way her nails had broken her skin as Loki had pressed against the barrier. She opened her hands palms out, Fury and Jane looking at her with first confusion, then shock and horror.

Darcy could only think of a long string of swear words.

Loki leant forwards, one corner of his lips going up more than the other so that a lopsided smirk was plastered on his face. "Well," He said. "This just got interesting."

* * *

Chapter title from Fall Out Boy's Sophomore Slump or Comeback of The Year


	3. Chapter 3: Not Easy Anymore

Jane hadn't said anything since they'd been escorted to the room half an hour ago. That in itself was unusual enough to make Darcy scared without the additional "magically bound to a psychotic god" drama.

She looked at the palms of her hands which were now sporting angry red scratches. Loki's had been little more than pale white marks, barely discernible. She supposed he was still healing just as quickly.

She felt another wave of repulsion wash over her. She was connected to..._him_. Even the thought of his name was too much to bear.

By the time they were called back in, Darcy's confusion had turned into anger. It wasn't fair for her to be tangled up in this mess. Jane had better hope her research never helped her get Thor back because Darcy was going to kill him.

Loki did not look happy when she returned. If anything she would have said he was sulking. That's when she realised that she wasn't actually scared of him.

Maybe she would have been if she'd been in New York but now he was sort of pathetic. All she felt when she looked at him was a deep seated hatred.

"Sit down." Fury growled at her and Jane. They did as they were bid though an uneasy feeling appeared in Darcy's stomach. Neither Loki nor Fury was in a good mood, surely their solution would suit one of them?

"Obviously we can't throw you in prison too." Fury said, for once cutting to the important stuff. "We've decided on house arrest. You and Dr Foster will be moved to a more secure location. You'll have an armed escort to and from work."

Darcy stared at him disbelievingly. "You want me to live with Frost Brain over here?"

Loki ignored her jibe but Fury furrowed his eyebrows. "Do you have a better idea?"

"Kill him." She said quickly. Loki raised his eyebrows in surprise but other than that didn't react.

"Darcy!" Jane scolded.

"What?!" Darcy snapped. "He'd deserve it."

She pulled her elbow and dragged her to the corner of the room. "Look at him!" She whispered. "I don't like him any more than you do but don't you think he's been punished enough?"

"Yeah?" Darcy asked, unconvinced. "Try telling that to the families of the people he murdered."

She stormed back over before Jane could try to tell her off again. "Well?" She asked Fury.

"If we do that then you die too, thanks to this little spell. Anything that harms him harms you and vice versa."

"Well anything unnatural." Loki added.

Fury's gaze snapped to him angrily. "What do you mean unnatural?"

Loki smirked, amused. "It means I'm not going to be getting her headaches or cramps." He raised his hands, grinning at her patronisingly. "I get her nail marks instead."

"You can do magic too can't you?" She asked Loki. "Can't you, I don't know, remove the spell or something?"

He looked at her lazily. "As much as I would love to remove it so that you can kill me." He sneered. "You severely misunderstand how magic is performed. The spell is so complex that any attempt to remove it would be more likely to kill us both."

"And you wouldn't try to kill us anyway?" Darcy asked sarcastically. She recalled the look he'd given Jane, a look that said mere death wouldn't be enough and almost shuddered. He'd probably kill her too just to make a clean job of it.

"I couldn't kill you without killing myself." He told her bluntly. "And you aren't worth that." He added with disgust.

Darcy gritted her teeth. "And what about Jane?" She asked.

He gave her a mocking smile that she wanted to smack off of his face. "My brother is an idiot but even he would not be as foolish as to send me to his mortal whore without taking precautions."

"Like what?" Jane asked, ignoring the insult.

Loki took a slow breath in which Darcy imagined was him cursing all mortals. "Those notes carried charms, they enabled you to see me for one. I would be unable to hurt any one of you without excruciating pain in return."

"You don't exactly seem put off by that." Darcy pointed out.

"I've become accustomed to it." He snapped. Darcy flinched in shock, she hadn't expected such an emotional response. "Though I think it would be quite difficult to kill someone whilst writhing in agony."

"You'll have round the clock surveillance. He so much as lifts a finger towards one of you we'll know." Fury added.

Darcy could think of no further protests so Fury took the opportunity to end the conversation. "Now enough protests, you don't exactly have much of a choice in this. Take the rest of the day off to get settled in."

"But-"

"Enough." Fury said so firmly that even Darcy didn't dare argue. He called the guards in. "Escort them all to house 21 and if she starts complaining you have permission to use your tasers."

Darcy did not remember much of the ride to their new home. Jane had driven and babbled nervously about how she was going to work even harder to reach Thor. Loki was being escorted in the car that Jane was following and Darcy only had time to see that their new house was big before she was being pushed and locked inside of it.

The front door led into a corridor with stairs on one side and a living room on the other which all three of them stood in awkwardly, even Loki before Darcy had mumbled that she was going to look around. Her new home consisted of a large kitchen, a home compiled of a treadmill and some weights, three bedrooms all with ensuites and a downstairs study. It was all done up ridiculously modern like a five star hotel so that she felt afraid of touching anything in case she broke it. A sudden wave of longing for their old home with its second hand furniture and windows like paper crashed over her.

She walked into one of the bedrooms with boxes piled on the floor labelled "Darcy". The slightly bigger room at the end of the hall had all of Jane's stuff in. She found this slightly unfair, she felt she ought to have the bigger room given that she was the one with the curse or whatever it was.

Her room was still large though and done up in lilacs and creams with large windows looking out onto the miles of barren expanse that surrounded the house.  
She walked up to it and twitched the blinds back as far as they would go so that she could open the window. She stuck her head out so that she could see as close to the house as possible. Beneath her were people dressed in black standing a few feet away from each other and surrounding the house.

She took a few shaky breaths in and closed the window before slumping back against it. She'd never been very good with being in confined spaces. She went for jogs most nights just because going from work to their house was spending too much time inside. She liked to go on long walks just because she could. She liked to be outside because being inside was too much like being trapped. Her hand brushed the wall behind her. Now she really was...

She rubbed her temples as though such thoughts were a headache she was trying to be rid of. She'd be fine, she told herself. She walked over to the boxes on her bed, knowing she'd have to unpack eventually and that her usual technique of just waiting until she used everything wouldn't quite cut it this time.

A creak on the floor outside made her look up to see Loki looking round the landing as though lost. Much to her chagrin, his room was opposite hers. He looked up at her, more of a glare, really, before looking away.

"Your room is that way, Sirius." She told him annoyed. He looked at her as though contemplating which highly painful way of killing her would be the most effective before skulking off and slamming his door shut.

When he was gone, she let out the breath she hadn't realised she'd held and her muscles relaxed. He may not have scared her but his presence definitely made her uncomfortable and more than a little bit nervous, as though a slip of the tongue might make him go all psycho again.

She turned back to the box which contained books. There was only one shelf in the room, above a chest of drawers in the corner. It wasn't going to be nearly enough room. Jane may have had more books than she did but it wasn't by much and hers were all sciency and thin whereas Darcy's were fiction and took up a lot more room. She sighed, of course SHIELD would forget about all the books she read. She was Darcy, the dumb one. It didn't matter that she'd gone to uni and graduated from there a year early or that she'd been one of the best students at school. She wasn't a scientist and therefore she must be stupid, right?

She rolled her eyes and threw herself onto the bed. She knew that she encouraged it, the view of her as flippant and silly. Sometimes it was easier to be superficial because it meant you didn't have to think about the big things.

And then she realised that she was doing just that now by focusing on the lack of book storage rather than the fact she was living with a murderer. She moaned and buried her face into the pillow.

"Did you call him Sirius?" Jane asked amused. She rolled over so that she was looking at an upside down Jane leaning against the door frame. She propped herself up on the bed so that Jane was the right way up before replying.

"Yeah. As in Black by the way, not the constellation."

"I know which one you meant." She said. Darcy was shocked to see how composed she was. Given how much she'd fallen apart when Thor left she would have thought living with his psychotic brother would not have been great for her stability. "I just don't quite understand why."

"Because he looks like him, don't you think?" She pulled another box towards her to investigate its contents.

"He looks like an insane mass murderer." Jane said bluntly, perching herself on the foot of Darcy's bed.

Darcy gave her a withering look. "Well clearly someone never read the description in Prisoner of Azkaban."

Jane laughed and shook her head. "Guilty." She said. "But I'd say he's more a Severus Snape look alike, all that greasy hair."

Darcy laughed, realising as she did so that it was the first time she had all day and she hadn't thought that possible. The laughter died quickly but it was something at least. Which was quite a lot compared to the nothingness that she felt. "Why are you staying here?" She asked.

"What do you mean?" Jane asked her in response.

"Well," She replied slowly. "I'm the one with the stupid spell. You don't have to stay here, SHIELD wouldn't make you if you made a fuss."

"You're insane if you think I'm letting you live alone with..._him_."

"Ah yes because clearly he is no match for the mighty Jane." Darcy joked.

Jane gave her a worried look. Darcy squirmed uncomfortably, she wanted the truth but she hated serious conversations, especially with Jane who was never distracted by her joking. "When Thor left I probably would have gone insane if you hadn't been there, one of those scientists who live at SHIELD."

"You did." Darcy pointed out. Jane smiled slightly in response.

"Okay fine, I did but I would have been a lot worse if you weren't there." She told her. "And I never properly thanked you, I can't cope on my own. I set things on fire and get distracted by work and forget to eat and let's not talk about the times you've had to remind me I was still in my pyjamas before we've left for work."

As touched as Darcy felt she couldn't quite accept this. "You just get a little occupied by work." Darcy told her. "And I've told you I'm fine with doing everything else." She didn't mention that the wage for being Jane's assistant was triple what she could otherwise hope to earn as a political science major. Besides, she knew that especially with what they'd gone through with Thor, that she would have done the work anyway for a lot less, out of interest mostly but also because she didn't want SHIELD messing with her memories. "But none of that justifies you having to live here."

"Oh stop." She said standing. "I'm staying here. That's final. And I'm going to find Thor if it kills me."

Darcy smirked slightly. "I feel sorry for him when you do."

Jane laughed. "Oh he has got a hell of a lot of explaining to do." She walked out of the room and Darcy realised she felt a lot better. Despite Jane's ludicrous reasons for staying, Darcy was a lot happier that she was.

She'd grown close to Jane over the past year. They were more like sisters than friends and she didn't mean that in the cheesy way that most girls did. They wound each other up beyond logical reason but at the same time they loved each other, and there was no one that Darcy trusted more. Especially since Erik left to work on the tesseract.

She pulled her phone out of her bag to text her kind-of-sort-of-nearly-almost boyfriend Adam who worked as one of SHIELD's media editors, the ones who fed the cover-up stories to the press. They'd been on a few dates and everyone assumed they were together though neither had made any attempt to make it official.

_You would not believe the day I am having_. She tried sending before receiving an error message. No signal. She sighed and rolled back over on the bed. Well wasn't that just great?

With no other way of communicating until she found her laptop she commenced unpacking. When her laptop failed to show up she decided that SHIELD must have thought giving Loki access to the outside world was probably a bad idea. Or so she told herself, the idea that they didn't even trust her with that was a bit too much.

Instead she made dinner. She wasn't much of a cook but she was a lot better than Jane and it was her turn. As she prepared the sauce for the spaghetti she wondered whether Loki even ate mortal food and decided that he could just sort himself out if he didn't. Thor certainly seemed to like food but Loki was a Frost

Giant, for all she knew he ate ice or something.

"Food's ready!" She called before grabbing her bowl and sitting down. Jane would be a few minutes as she finished up whatever she was writing and she was just starting to hope that Loki wouldn't come down at all when he walked through the door. She jumped as he entered, she had very good hearing and his sudden appearance was startling. How could he move so quietly?

He must have showered because the blood was gone from his face, just thin red lines and faint bruises where before he'd been a beaten mess. She'd known that he would heal quickly but quite that quickly was shocking. All except for his eye which whilst looking slightly better still seemed like one of the worst cuts she'd ever seen. From the looks of it he'd had to cut the matted blood from his hair so that it reached to just an inch below his ears, pushed back and damp.

She looked into her bowl of food feeling oddly intrusive. This was the villain who killed so many people and destroyed New York. He ought to have been standing on the top of a sky scraper screaming his nonsense. To have him here, in a kitchen after he'd showered felt so private a moment that she felt uncomfortable.

"Help yourself." She said, her voice sounding strained and unnatural even to her own ears. He looked at her suspiciously before turning to his food and getting such a pitifully small portion that she would not have even given it to a child.

He then sat down opposite her and picked at it as though it were poisoned.

"What?" She asked, annoyed at the way he was suspiciously rifling through the food. "You don't like spaghetti?"

He glanced up briefly before looking back at his food and remaining silent. He looked slightly confused but mostly bored and annoyed.

Darcy rolled her eyes and leant back on her chair.

"Sorry I'm late." Jane said as she came into the room, causing Darcy to jump again. She cursed herself, two people in one day? She'd been a tad distracted by

Loki to hear Jane coming.

She got her food and sat at the head of the table. "So what do you think of the new house?" She asked.

"It's okay." Darcy replied slowly, still eying Loki warily. Jane's act of normality couldn't be sustained for long, Loki's very presence stunted all other conversation. Darcy finished her food quickly and excused herself, saying that she was tired and was going to go to bed. In reality she didn't think she'd ever be able to sleep knowing that Loki was just on the other side of the hall. Knowing that monster was under the same roof.

* * *

Sorry about this, it's the first fic I've written that isn't from Loki's point of view and I realised just how hard it is to get him right from an external perspective, especially when you don't have Hiddles's amazing acting. Anyway, in my opinion it gets better. Congratulations if you can be bothered to read this until that point and thanks for trying.

Chapter title from The Devil In My Bloodstream by The Wonder Years. It doesn't really have much to do with it, it was just the song I was listening to when I started writing it.


	4. Chapter 4: A Little Crazy Sometimes

In the morning, Loki was just as silent and sulky as he had been last night. Even when the SHIELD agents said he had to ride in the car with Jane and Darcy so that they could properly escort them. He just sat in the back and stared out the window, a vacant expression on his face. He didn't even apologise for making them an hour late because he wouldn't get out of bed.

Darcy didn't say anything either though, after all, it _was_ a morning.

"What's it like," A voice said in her ear as she closed the door of the car. "Knowing that you finally have a purpose at SHIELD?"

"Well I suppose you wouldn't know." She snapped back.

Jane had carried on walking but Loki was standing a few feet away watching their conversation. She wished he'd go away before remembering the pain she'd receive if he did. She was glad he remembered the charm because she kept forgetting. Then again he had a lot more to lose from it.

Dan smirked at her. It was an ugly smile, it made his wide nose look bigger and his far-set eyes squint.

"And it's not even because they trust you," He continued. "You just got a spell, right? Still as useless as ever."

She rolled her eyes, she found him sort of amusing by now because his comments were just so childish. She reminded herself that he did it to everyone.

"Yeah, alright Dan." She said and walked away. As much as she would love to slap him she knew that he got his joy from getting a response from her and she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction.

Loki walked next to her. Well level with her, he was still a few feet away to make it clear that she wasn't to speak to him. He wasn't watching her anymore but looking around SHIELD with his cold, calculating eyes. She could have sworn a smile was playing at the corners of his lips.

As they entered the lab his eyes lit up with amusement. He was probably thinking how primitive it all was. The wall by the corridor was made of glass so the guards just stood by outside.

Jane pulled on her coat and walked over to one of the desks before scribbling on pieces of paper which Darcy would eventually have to file away. The benefit of thinking of nothing but work, or your boyfriend who you need to work in order to get back, was that you got straight into the job when you arrivd. Darcy however walked to the instant coffee machine in the corner, having woken up late from not sleeping until the early hours of the morning she had been unable to make her usual cup and therefore had to settle for the watery burnt coffee from the one machine in the entire building that was more than five years old.

"Hey Frost Brain do you want anything?" She asked. Loki had been watching Jane work but turned to her as though she were an annoying fly. That or he was contemplating turning her into one. He sharply shook his head once and turned back to Jane.

Darcy rolled her eyes again and sipped her manky coffee.

"Look." She told him. "I'm trying to be nice. I don't have to be. You haven't given me any reason to. So the least you could do is stop being such an asshole."

All he did was look vaguely amused until she clenched her teeth and walked over to Jane.

"Can you type this up please?" She asked, handing Darcy an equation.

"Sure." She replied, looking at the page as she attempted to decipher Jane's handwriting. Slim fingers plucked the page from her hand before she evenrealised he was with her. He scanned it, his eyebrows rising sceptically.

"This won't work." He said.

Darcy tried to take the sheet back from him but he lifted it out of her reach without even looking at her. Her fingers curled into fists in anger.

"Excuse me?" Jane asked, turning round to face him with her arms crossed, her expression incredibly unimpressed and challenging.

"It's wrong." He said, holding the paper up.

"I have a degree in astro-physics." She said with a slight grin. "I th-"

"And you're wrong." Loki interrupted bluntly.

Darcy sipped the coffee as she watched their confrontation.

He inhaled as though she was frustrating him. "You are trying to reach Asgard, correct?"

"Yes." Jane said cautiously.

"Well then," He grabbed a pen from the side and crossed out some of the numbers and wrote other ones instead.

"Wait! I'd really rather you didn't!" Jane protested feebly but he was done and shoving the paper back at her.

Jane took it suspiciously and read it through narrowed eyes. "This uh," She said at last. "actually makes more sense."

"Obviously." Loki said derisively.

"Could you type it up please?" Jane asked, handing it to Darcy but not taking her eyes off of Loki who glared at her challengingly. Darcy looked at it, Loki's hand writing was a lot clearer than Jane's and kind of old fashioned. Not cursive or anything but like the kind of print you expect to find in an old bible. She looked at Jane.

"Can I have a word?" She asked, her eyes flickering briefly to Loki. "In private?"

Jane nodded reluctantly and walked to the corner with her. Loki remained over by the wall, watching them with that same annoying smirk. Darcy didn't understand, he seemed to have two modes: sulky and silent or condescending and patronising.

"Are you insane?" She hissed.

"Not the last time I checked..." Jane said.

"Why would he help you?" Darcy asked.

"I don't know." Jane admitted. "But the equation makes sense and I've been working on it for months."

"How do you know it won't crash the entire machine if you try to use it. He might try to prevent us reaching Thor."

"I don't think so." Jane shook her head. "If anything he'd want us to, surely. Thor would just tell us in person to keep him around, he's already getting pretty good treatment."

"He's up to something." Darcy said firmly.

Jane shrugged. "Probably but that doesn't change the fact that this is right."

"He's up to something." Darcy repeated before smiling mischievously. "And I'm going to find out what."

"Great." Jane said sarcastically. "But could you type that up first.

Darcy glared at her but went over to the computer anyway.

"How did you know that anyway?" She heard Jane ask Loki.

"Not all of us left our education at 'the realms connect like a tree.'" Unable to stop herself, Darcy laughed and turned to see Jane's expression which was just as gormless as she'd hoped. Loki gave Darcy a wary glance before turning away again.

"H-h-how did you know he told me that?" Jane asked flabbergasted.

"He likes showing off his...impressive...knowledge to lesser mortals."

"Lesser what?" Jane asked, annoyed. Loki ignored her.

For the next few hours Loki and Jane worked on Jane's research while Darcy was kept busier than she had been in months, photocopying things for Loki and typing things up for Jane. When she told them it was her lunch break, Jane looked at the clock on the wall shocked.

"Okay." She said.

"Umm," Darcy started awkwardly. "I kind of have to steal your partner."

Jane looked from Loki to her and her eyes widened. "What you want to take him to the canteen?"

"Why not?" Darcy asked back.

"Won't he cause a riot or something?"

"There's barely ever anyone in there." Darcy replied. "And I'm sure Frost Brain promises to be on his best behaviour, don't you?"

Loki predictably ignored her.

Darcy refrained from rolling her eyes, deciding that she'd done that much too much today already. "Come on." She hoped he was following her because she didn't really want to encounter the magical barrier.

"Woah." Dan said, stepping in her way as she tried to walk through the door. "Where do you think you're going?"

"To the canteen, idiot. It's my lunch break."

He looked passed her shoulder at Loki, a flash of fear showing on his face before the 'holier than thou' expression returned. "You can't go up there."

"Oh yes I can, it's in my contract." Darcy smiled and pushed her glasses back up on her face. For once she was thankful she'd woken up too late to put her contacts on, her glasses worked for great expressions.

His eyes flicked to Loki again. "That was before...him."

Darcy crossed her arms and shifted her weight to her right leg. "Well if you'd like to take it up with Fury..."

It worked. His face visibly paled and he stepped out of the way. They both knew he wouldn't bother Fury with something so trivial though he did tell two of the guards to follow them.

The thing about the canteen was that more often than not it was empty. The base in New Mexico was primarily a research facility. Sure it had its fair share of guards but most people were scientists. And most of the scientists were like Jane, too busy with their work to come up and eat.

So it was that when Darcy and Loki entered only three people were sat in the large room. For some reason they kept it well staffed, they could have got away with just vending machines but mostly, such as on this occasion the five workers just stood around talking.

Darcy didn't pay attention to the people as she walked in, knowing that she and Loki were getting looks. She just kept her chin up high and ignored them before marching to the opposite side.

"Are you hungry?" She asked Loki. At this point she would have been shocked if he _did_ respond. She rolled her eyes. "Go sit down then, asshole."

Loretta, the normally friendly and chatty lunchroom worker said nothing as she passed Darcy her sandwiches, one for her and one for her to take back down to Jane. Instead she just glared at her suspiciously.

Darcy started to search the room for Loki before her eyes fell instead upon Matt. He grinned at her as she walked over and she felt the vice on her lungs unclench slightly, she hadn't realised how nervous she'd been of his treating her differently.

"Hey," He greeted through a mouthful of chilli.

"At least swallow first, God." Darcy complained in way of response.

He choked it down and wiped his mouth with his napkin. "Nice to see you're in a good mood." The guard replied. The nice thing about Matt was that he really made an effort to get on with everyone, though Darcy severely doubted that that would extend to certain Norse Gods. He was also one of the few who didn't look down on her for not going through the usual recruitment process of being handpicked from whichever university or army you were at.

"I'm fine I just don't like seeing all that." She said disgusted. He leant closer his eyes narrowing at her.

"You _are _fine." He said at last, sitting back up straight done with his scrutiny. "Shouldn't you be distraught or cowering or something because of your new roomy?"

Darcy snorted. "Yeah right, the scariest thing about him is his haircut." He could probably hear her but she didn't care. If he was going to practically use her as a magical hostage and then be rude to her she was going to be just as rude back.

"You called him a 'asshole.'" He commented. She couldn't tell if he meant anything by it.

"Yes?" She prompted.

"Well most people would be a bit wary about calling homicidal maniacs names."

"Trust me when you've seen the guy frown over cereal he stops being quite so intimidating." She replied.

His hand reached out and grabbed her wrist.

"You can't get comfortable around him." He whispered. "He's dangerous."

She yanked her arm bag. "For christ's sake, Matt, I know that! I'm not an idiot."

"Just making sure." He said, putting his arms up in surrender and leaning back.

Her eyes flickered to Loki who was sat in the back corner of the room, not paying attention and looking bored. The guards stood on either side of him. She wondered how she was expected to find that intimidating before she realised that anyone else guarded like that would look pathetic. Loki must have been pretty intimidating to come off as merely bored.

"Hi." A voice said from behind her. She jumped and span round, people had really got to stop sneaking up on her.

"Adam!" She said in reply. He slid into the seat next to her, his expression as always, unreadable. "How're you?"

"Fine." He replied, eyes flickering briefly to Matt. He'd always been kind of jealous of Matt. He was good looking she supposed, with his bronze skin and curly black hair but it was in a pixie kind of way and there just wasn't anything romantic between them. Matt however was six foot of pure sexiness, from his messy brown hair to his bright blue eyes.

"Well that's good." She replied. He was normally quiet like this and she normally enjoyed the challenge of drawing conversation out of him but today she just wasn't in the mood. "I tried to text you last night, no signal." She told him, hinting at an explanation as to why he hadn't texted her at all, even when she got to work.

Luckily he got the hint. He was really intelligent but utterly hopeless when it came to relationships. Which they weren't technically in, just a few dates but still.

"Ahh right, I figured I'd let you spend some time settling in. I heard you volunteered to keep an eye on Loki." He spat his name and for some reason it made her angry. Loki was her problem, not his.

She shared a brief look with Matt who had higher clearance level than Adam and therefore knew about the magical complications.

"Ahh right," She said. "Well it was more Jane y'know, seeming as her and Thor..."

"Right." He said nodding. "So you want to go out on Saturday? I was thinking we could go up to Santa Fe?

"Uh yeah," Darcy said awkwardly which was most unlike her but she wasn't very good at lying, she preferred to just be blunt with people. "I'd love to but Fury says both of us have to stay in the house with-"

"No problem." He interrupted, colour had risen to his cheeks and Darcy felt slightly guilty. He was so awkward sometimes, like now, that she got second-hand embarrassment. Matt was also trying not to laugh so she kicked him under the table. "Some other time."

"Yeah, some other time." She replied.

They ate most of the rest of their lunch in silence but when Darcy looked up she could have sworn Loki was smirking.

* * *

Chapter title from Give A Damn by A Rocket To The Moon. About the whole song lyrics for chapter titles thing, it has two parts. I tend to associate chapters or stories with songs (like this was originally named after A Beautiful Lie by Thirty Seconds To Mars so it just feels right naming them after lyrics. The second part is that I'm too lazy to think of chapter titles. Anyway I hope you like the chapter.

PS Thank you so much for the reviews. I think this is the first time I've ever had reviews on a story and it means the world so thanks x


	5. Chapter 5: Sometime Around Midnight

A week. Loki had been living with her for a week. And if there was one thing she hadn't expected Loki to be it was annoying yet that's all that came to her mind when she thought of him. He hadn't said a thing to her in all that time so, as wrong as she knew it was, it had become a favourite past time of hers to be as annoying as possible in response.

She'd showered and changed into pyjamas when she got home because it was Jane's night to cook and thanks to her stupid house arrest it wasn't like she had anywhere to go.

She was twisting her hair into a towel turban as she entered the living room. Loki was sat in the arm chair in the corner which he'd claimed as his own. The sight of him in such domestic positions never failed to amuse her.

"Why yes," She said sarcastically when she saw him. "You can borrow my copy of The Lord of The Rings. Thank you so much for asking." He took her stuff like he owned it. He returned it, of course but it still grated on her that he wouldn't even ask. Though she did have to admit it wasn't the problem she thought she'd have when living with him.

He didn't look up from the book, his face as impassive as ever. His wounds were all gone now, except for the one over his eye which had turned into a jagged red scar that cut across his eyebrow.

Sometimes she looked at him and wondered how he was the same person that did all that did all that stuff last year. She could barely even tie the laughing

Loki she'd first met with the one in front of her. All he did was sit around looking sad, which she supposed was a good thing because if he were happy it would probably mean the world was burning.

"Well I can see you are your usual bundle of laughs." She sighed. "Nice talking to you."

She left to the kitchen, the smell of burning already emanating from the oven as Jane scribbled notes at the table. Darcy shook her head and got the burnt food out of the oven, Jane not even looking up from her notes.  
She realised how similar Jane and Loki were and felt a slight twinge of annoyance. Loki would only speak to Jane, curtly at that, when at work. It would be

Darcy's luck to have to live with both of them.

The food was beyond recognition so Darcy threw it away and refilled the oven with frozen chicken nuggets and chips.

"One day you will wake up," Darcy said, sitting down next to Jane who jumped in response. "And your house will be on fire and it will be because you forgot you were cooking."

"I did it again?" She asked, pushing the notes away.

"Yep." Darcy replied. "What was it supposed to be, may I ask?"

Jane blushed. "I can't remember."

"Yeah well I guess we'll at least be able to laugh at Loki eating dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets."

"I think watching him eat my cooking would be funnier." Jane said, gazing at the notes as though wondering when she could resume them.

"So listen," Darcy started. "When you two are working, has he said anything?"

Jane glared at her. "You still aren't letting this drop?"

"Deranged psychopath starts helping mortal with research out of the kindness of his heart?" She asked in reply.

Jane sighed in response. "He hasn't said anything to me that wasn't strictly work related. He sometimes looks at me like he's imagining killing me slowly and painfully though if that helps."

"Yeah well he does that to everyone, I think that's just the Loki default look." Darcy said, leaning back in her chair. She had been hoping for some big slip up of his. Something like "Oh yes I'm secretly using this research to take over the world but shush you mustn't tell anyone." Yes. That would have been nice.

"So what's your latest theory?" Jane asked.

"Well..." Darcy started, knowing Jane wouldn't like it.

"What?" She snapped.

"You've seen how quickly those marks healed."

"Of course." Jane replied. "He's from Asgard he heals quicker than we do."

"Right," Darcy said slowly as though trying to break the death of a pet to a child. "Well he said he got them from his dad right? Or under his father's commands at least?"

"Well Odin is the king so yes." Jane was looking at her suspiciously.

"He heals so quickly, what if it wasn't built up over time? What if they were inflicted daily and then he...healed and got a new set?"

Jane shook her head. "Thor would never let that happen."

"Thor was the one who broke him out of prison in the first place, what if that was why?" Darcy suggested and Jane's eyes widened.

"You feel sorry for him?" Jane asked, appalled. She may not have shown it as much as Darcy did but she hated Loki a lot more than she let on. It was mostly because of Erik, she still hadn't gotten over what Loki did to him.

"Don't get me wrong, if anyone deserves that kind of punishment it's him...I just don't know if anyone deserves it. I mean he was in there for a year, in what world is that supposed to make his mind better? It's only going to damage it more."

Jane eventually nodded. "All right so what's that got to do with him helping me?"

Darcy started tapping nervously on the table. "He's been so quiet it doesn't really make sense. He was screaming and laughing and showing off, or at least that's what we were always told. It's like he's kind of retreated into himself like some godly form of depression or something."

"You think Loki is depressed?" Jane gave her a sceptical mocking look.

"Well it makes sense doesn't it? What if him helping you is just because he's given up? He doesn't care anymore. He hasn't tried to escape or anything. I mean he could take me as a hostage or something if he couldn't break the curse but he just hasn't."

"Yesterday you said he was quiet because he was secretly building a weapon instead of a way to Asgard. The day before it was because he was trying to reach Asgard for revenge. Today it's because he's got a mental illness?"

"I'm just saying that it makes sense!"

"You know," Jane said standing up. "How about instead of just watching him you try taking to him. And like an actual human rather than insulting him. You might learn something."

"What like you are?" Darcy asked back annoyed.

"I'm not saying I am but it might put an end to all your ludicrous theories." She went over to the oven.

Darcy didn't say anything. Something was obviously up with Loki and if Jane didn't care that was her problem, she was going to find out what it was if it killed her.

"Loki!" Jane called. "Dinner is ready."

Loki entered the kitchen when the food was on plates on the table. Darcy didn't think she'd ever seen anything funnier than the look on his face when he saw it.

Darcy couldn't sleep that night. After trying for a few hours she decided it was time to give up and rolled out of bed with the plan of getting sleeping pills which she'd had Jane, being the only one allowed out to go shopping, buy her after her first sleepless night living with Loki.

Her feet fumbled to find slippers and she yawned. She felt tired enough to collapse but for some reason sleep eluded her.

Half asleep she almost didn't realise as she walked downstairs that the light was on in the living room until she reached it.

"For fuck's sake," She moaned. "It is two in the morning."

Loki glanced up from the book long enough to roll his eyes at her before returning to it. She threw herself onto the sofa next to him. She curled her legs up beneath her and leant across to jab Loki in the arm. His nostrils flared slightly at her touch but otherwise he ignored her.

"What are you doing still awake, you idiot?" She asked, her voice slightly hoarse.

He looked up at her, eyes narrowed. Anger flared in his eyes and for the first time she could see him as the person who caused the destruction in New York, the venom in his eyes alone was enough to level the city. "Watch your tongue, mortal." He spat.

Any sane person would run a mile under that look, Darcy thought as she once again proved her stupidity by getting annoyed at his comment rather than scared. "Well it looks like you finally figured out how to use yours." She retorted snarkily.

He gave her an appraising look that made her insides crawl, like he was trying to decide which way would be the slowest and most painful way to kill her. For some reason she didn't feel scared, just anxious. She never thought she'd be thankful for that magic spell thing that stopped him being able to kill her.

"Are you," He started slowly, his voice velvety smooth. "Always this insufferable?"

Darcy grinned. "I try." Her brain felt like mush from her lack of sleep, or maybe it was just in a state of shock from Loki talking. Therefore, it took her a few moments to recall what she'd originally asked. "Now why are you up?" She repeated but he was already reading again.

"Hello?" She asked, reaching over to poke him. She didn't know why she kept touching him, it was like poking a feral animal, clearly was not going to end up well. Still, she got a sort of sadistic pleasure from his annoyance, like irritating a sibling.

He moved so quickly she barely saw it but the next the next thing she knew his hand was closed around her wrist, her arm still outstretched, pulling both of them to their feet. His fingers dug in painfully but she tried not to show it. He looked furious, his eyes slitted, his lips pressed into a thin line. She tried to pull her arm back but it was no use.

"Do not touch me again." He growled.

She laughed, sounding a lot more confident than she felt. "You're like a petulant kid." She mocked. She reached her hand that wasn't being gripped for her pocket before remembering that she was wearing her pyjamas and her taser was on charge in her room.

His fingers tightened even more, it felt like the bone was being crushed. She was mentally going through the self defence classes that SHIELD had made her take but she couldn't remember the "how to battle an immortal being" lesson.

"I am a God." He hissed, bringing his face close to hers. The silkiness of his voice was gone, instead he just sounded desperate. She could feel her heart racing as adrenaline pumped through her.

She smiled at him coldly, returning the evil glare he was giving her. "Don't kid yourself." She retorted. "You're a monster." _Stop talking!_ Her brain scolded but as usual her mouth didn't listen.

He raised an eyebrow, the scar on his eye stretching. "You have no idea." He replied at last, letting go of her wrist. He'd left finger shaped bruises on her skin. When he saw them something changed on his face, she must have imagined it because it was gone again in a second but he looked almost concerned.

Her hand cracked across his face. He was taken by surprise, his head snapping to the side. Her hand stung and she felt a slight tingling in her cheek, she assumed that must be the pain that Loki felt from the slap. Stupid magical connection. Stupid Asgardian being stupidly unhurt by her slap.

He looked at her, his face questioning as though he couldn't understand why she'd just slapped him. "You dick." She said, rather aware of the fact that she could probably think of a better insult. "I don't care if you've got daddy issues or whatever, who the hell do you think you are?"

He opened his mouth to reply but she could almost hear the baffled response of 'I am Loki of Asgard' and she didn't think her anger could take that. "No!" She stopped him. "I don't give a flying fuck that you're immortal! That gives you absolutely no right to treat the rest of us like we're beneath you, get off your high fucking horse." She was breathing heavily but at that moment she didn't care.

"You are the reason we are all here. We're doing you the favour here! The least you could do is stop acting like such a spoilt brat!" She was so angry with him she didn't know where to start. Did he not even care that he'd messed up her life? That she was under house arrest because of him?

"I didn't mean to grip you so tightly." He mumbled.

"Oh well that makes it okay then!" She cried sarcastically. She knew she was acting hysterically but she figured at this point she could blame it on the lack of sleep. "And don't give me that crap! You probably have the marks too!" She reached towards him before he could pull away and pulled his sleeve up, her next words catching in her throat at the sight of his skin. Thin white scars crossed his arm, over lapping each other like a thousand asterisks. There were two that were slightly deeper, still red and puckered. His bruises had bruises, so many that any finger print ones would be hidden. And they all stopped immediately as they reached his hands.

"H-h-how?" She stammered, completely at a loss for things to say. She turned his hand gently over in hers to see the other side, scared that she might break it. He yanked his arm back angrily and pulled the sleeve down.

"I believe you know how." He muttered viciously.

"But those marks are gone." Darcy said, shaking her head, still unable to understand it. "Your face and hands..."

"I managed to speed the healing up in certain areas." Loki snapped.

"With magic?" She asked. He didn't say anything which she took to mean yes, if he admitted he'd used magic then Fury would probably add to the wounds.  
She thought Asgardians healed quicker, maybe it just took more to inflict the wounds in the first place. Or maybe, she thought, this was quicker. Just how many mortals could have survived with those wounds?

"He did this every day?" She asked, unable to keep the shock from her voice.  
His eyes flashed dangerously and he took a step away from her. "That's none of your concern." He snapped reminding Darcy of why she was angry in the first place.

"It is when you're being a jerk." She retorted, unable to muster her earlier annoyance.

"You are quite possibly the most unbearable mortal it has ever been my displeasure to meet." He told her.

"Right, well I guess now you have a legitimate excuse to try to destroy the world again." She said, her hands on her hips. She realised her cookie monster pyjamas probably weren't the most intimidating things in the world which might be why the corners of Loki's lips twitched.

"Was that a smile, Frost Brain?" She asked, amusement in her voice.

He rolled his eyes. She was tempted to jab him again but recalled the bruises on his skin. Even a prod from her would probably be torture. "Okay but that was a smile, right?" She repeated.

He gritted his teeth. "Shouldn't you be asleep? Upstairs? Away from here?"

"Shouldn't you?" She retorted, sitting down on the sofa and folding her arms. "No wonder it's so hard to wake you up in the mornings, you get no sleep."

He remained standing and shook his head slightly. "I don't even know why I'm talking to you."

Darcy grinned. "Because you find my company so exhilarating?"

He scowled. "No that's definitely not it."

"Careful," Darcy warned. "Or I'll spit in your dinner."

He glared at her. "Jeez I was joking." She said. "Don't they have humour on Asgard?"

"Oddly lacking in the dungeons." Loki replied curtly.

Darcy sat up straight and looked at him. "Loki smiled and made a funny on the same day? What the hell did Jane put in your food?"  
Again he looked at her blankly as though waiting for an explanation as to what was in the meal. "Again, just joking." She told him, trying to hide her own amusement.

"I do not understand you mortals." He said, scratching the back of his neck in a way so human it shocked Darcy more than him talking. Maybe she had fallen asleep and this was all a dream.

"You don't understand anything that doesn't kneel on command." Darcy said.

"Everyone kneels," Loki said seriously. "They just take a bit of persuasion." His voice sounded hollow. She felt weird, like that sentence wasn't meant for her ears. It was too intimate and private.

"Ri-i-ight." Darcy said in reply. "Persuading like a three foot sceptre." Even to her own ears the response sounded flippant and annoying.

"Something like that." Loki nodded, wandering away.

"Hey!" She called after him. "Where are you going?" But he wasn't listening to her anymore, by the time she'd stood up he'd disappeared at the top of the stairs.

She stayed up for a bit, trying to figure out what had just happened. Had she actually had a conversation with him? Her skin crawled. She'd felt pity for him. Pity for that...monster. She told herself to get a grip and went through in her mind all of the horrible things he'd done until she was burning with hatred. She clung to that feeling as she went to sleep. At least hatred for Loki made sense, the complete opposite to what that night had been.

* * *

Title from The Airborne Toxic Event's Sometime Around Midnight. Just in case it wasn't clear, Loki isn't actually depressed or whatever because God that would be an awful plot, it's just Darcy trying to fit his behaviour into things she can understand. It's just that his motives aren't clear until much later and I didn't want anyone to think I was rolling with that...

Anyway, I hope you liked it


	6. Chapter 6: Distance From Me

Because Jane was hopeless in the mornings, the unfortunate job of waking Loki up fell to Darcy. After the first morning when Loki had not emerged for well over an hour past when they should have left, they'd both decided it was a necessary task.

Today felt different however. She stood outside his door and, after hesitating slightly, raised her fist to it before banging it several times. "Get your Asgardian ass out of bed!" She shouted, knowing she would have to return at least three more times to make sure he was actually awake. And she'd thought that she was bad in the morning.

She showered and got dressed, thinking longingly of the days when she could wake up early and go for a run outside before work. The home gym just wasn't the same and as such she didn't tend to use it as much as she thought she ought to. It seemed colder today, it was the first week of October and it was like the seasons had aligned themselves so that they fit perfectly into where they theoretically should.

She decided to celebrate the occasion by getting her boots out of the wardrobe. Autumn was her season; she loved the jumpers and scarves, the hot chocolate and crunching leaves. Not that she got much of that in New Mexico but her family were from Connecticut so she'd had plenty of pleasant autumns in the past.

She was too preoccupied by revelling in the pleasant clicking her boots made on the floor to notice Loki as she went to bang on his door for the second time. As such, they almost collided on the landing. She stumbled backwards and he grasped her shoulders to stop her falling. He let go so quickly she wasn't sure it had really happened but she could still feel the impressions of his hands through her jumper. Not of force but heat. That was impossible though, her jumper was really thick.

She looked up at him in surprise to find that he was glaring at her in anger as though she'd made him collide into her.

"What are you doing awake?" She asked, realising rather embarrassingly that she was repeating herself from last night...morning...whatever.

"Watch where you are going." He snarled, storming past her, careful to skirt round her as though the slightest touch would kill him. She sighed and refrained from rolling her eyes. He was his usual pleasant self then.

They were getting into the car when Loki looked at her for possibly the first time without anger in his eyes. Instead it was confusion. She'd slid into the backseat next to him. Jane gave her a look in the mirror but didn't say anything. She could explain later, Darcy decided.

"Here." She said to him, holding out a travel cup of coffee. She vaguely saw Jane narrow her eyes at her from the corner of her eye but she ignored it. Loki stared at the cup. She stifled an eye roll and shoved it towards him. "Take it."

He reached his hand out and held it as though it was poisoned before lifting his eyes to her and looking at her suspiciously. She sighed. "It's just coffee."  
He looked back at the cup, confused. She swallowed her annoyance, what was so difficult about drinking the coffee? "It's not poisoned or anything." She told him. "Just drink it."

She took a few sips of her own and watched as he raised it to his lips and took a singular sip before wincing slightly.

"What?" She asked. "You don't like it?"

He stayed silent for a few moments and returned to looking out of the window. She didn't think he was going to answer but he replied with "It's a bit sweet."

She swore to God she thought Jane was going to crash the car.

She avoided looking at her and swallowed slightly guiltily. She'd put three sugars in because she needed more than just caffeine in the morning. Then she mentally slapped herself because she shouldn't be feeling guilty over not getting Loki's coffee right. She wanted to scream "JUST TELL ME WHAT YOU'RE DOING HERE!" the slow approach was not the Darcy one. Then again the Darcy approach of insulting him had achieved very little. Her conversation last night had resolved in the new tactic, which she would refrain from giving Jane any credit for, of being nice.

"Yeah," She answered. "Well drink up, it ought to keep you awake."

His nostrils flared slightly but he didn't say anything. She could just imagine the things he was holding back. Something like "I need no stupid mortal stimulants, you mewling quim, I am a God! *evil cackle*"

"Would you like to explain?" Jane hissed to her when they arrived, Loki walking ahead.

"I'm taking your advice." She said evasively.

"What?" Jane asked. "Advice to force feed him coffee?"

"I was just being nice." Darcy said.

"You're never nice." Jane replied to which Darcy pointedly raised her eyebrows. "Okay fine, never nice to him." She explained. "You probably scared him."

"You are joking, right?" She asked.

"Okay so 'scared' is the wrong word..."

"You think?" Darcy replied.

"You go from wanting to slap him one minute to giving him coffee the next?" Jane pointed out. Darcy squirmed, she hadn't told Jane about last night. Something within her didn't really want to.

"Don't act like you don't want to know what he's doing here." Darcy told her, trying to change the topic.

"Of course I do!" Jane replied. "Which is why I'm working to reach Asgard!"

"Well I want to know why he's helping you do that. Unlike you, I'm not buying his suddenly helpful act!"

"You really think I'm that stupid?" Jane asked, hurt in her voice.

"No, stupid is one thing you're definitely not." Darcy replied.

"Look, you think you're the only one that wants to slap the smug smile off of his face? You think you're the only one who thinks of New York every time you look at him? The only one who remembers what he did to Erik?" Her voice was getting higher.

"Then why are you not doing anything to find out why he is helping?"

"Because he is! I don't care about the why until I've spoken to Thor and because the rest of us aren't stupid enough to think we can interrogate him!"

"So now I'm stupid?" Darcy asked angrily.

"At the moment, yeah!" Her face was flushed. The guards were starting to give them odd looks so they lowered their voices again.

"Thanks Jane," Darcy replied sarcastically. "You know I've never heard that before."

"I didn't mean it that way." Jane snapped. "You know who the only successful person to ever interrogate him was? Natasha Romanof. And even she almost didn't succeed. You think you can just talk to him a bit and he'll tell you all his evil plans?"

"I can try." Darcy replied coldly. "Which is a damn sight better than what you lot are doing."

She stormed off, over taking Loki who looked up with an odd expression on his face: part amusement and part confusion. She had a horrible feeling that he'd heard every word they'd said.

Work that morning was weird. Jane was obviously upset because her work was dangerously sloppy, she was spilling chemicals and knocking things over which Darcy had to then stroppily clean up. If she hadn't known any better she would have thought she was doing it on purpose but Jane would never purposefully risk her work just to prove a point.

Loki kept looking from Darcy to Jane with that same look on his face. She felt like maybe he was used to watching people argue. She was annoyed at him too, he was the one that had caused this mess in the first place but she was being friendlier with him than she was with Jane, Jane doing the same thing.  
He looked very, very confused.

In the week that Loki had been here, Jane had progressed twice as far with her work than she had for the two years without Thor. Loki was puzzling over some equation and doing a weird thing with his fingers like he was trying to flick water off of them. Occasionally she thought she saw coloured sparks flicker.  
Jane was on the phone to some Korean scientist whose progress with some thermonuclear thingy Jane thought would help with her atom accelerator thing-a-majig. Darcy really hated her job sometimes. She thought it might be nice to understand what was going on.

She bit her lip hesitantly, Jane would be a while on the phone and Loki was busy. She sat down at the computer and went onto the SHIELD messaging server. The nice thing about SHIELD was that as long as you got your work done they didn't care if you messed around at work. They used to monitor the computers but she supposed they must have gotten tired of watching all the guards watch porn because they stopped pretty quickly.

Thankfully, Adam's contact had a little green circle next to it. She pondered for a moment what to write, she hadn't seen him since their encounter in the canteen.

_Hey_. She wrote rather lamely, hoping he'd think of something.

After a moment or two she got a reply. _Hi_. She'd forgotten just how bad he was at conversation. It was a good thing he was hot as hell. For some reason she found her eyes wandering over to Loki.

_How're you?_ She asked.

_Okay._ And then a minute later. _You?_

She tilted her head to the side, this was going to take some effort.

_Yeah. Listen, I'm sorry I've been so busy lately. Fury has officially made my list for making me do this.  
_

_It's okay. I've been pretty busy too or I would have been in touch earlier.  
_

That distracted her for a moment.

_Busy? With what?  
_

_More Mandarin attacks. We've had to hush it up but I don't know how much longer we can keep doing this. It's getting ridiculous.  
_

She vaguely recalled a terrorist attack last year by some guy called the Mandarin. Around ten people had died. She didn't realise there'd been more.

_Isn't anyone trying to stop it?  
_

_They've got Ward on the case now.  
_

She gritted her teeth. Grant Ward was the worst kept secret at SHIELD. Officially he worked the same department as Adam, just at the New York base. Everyone knew he was one of their agents though. She'd met him at last year's Christmas party. He flirted with anything with a pulse and it had taken all her self-restraint not to taser him when he kept hitting on her after she'd said no like fifty times.

_Ward? They need Romanof.  
_

_Yeah well she's still deep under cover in Russia. _After the avengers stuff they'd decided it was best to keep her out of the public eye for a while. There wasn't much decent footage of her helping but they decided to let they hype die down a bit before they gave her more high profile cases.

_That sucks. _Darcy replied.

_Yeah well how's life with...you know. _She grinned, it was kind of cute that he couldn't even type Loki's name.

_Like a bad 80s sitcom.  
_

_Wait you mean there are good 80s sitcoms?  
_

_I'll let you know if I find any.  
_

_You still under house arrest?  
_

_Yeah, unfortunately.  
_

_Oh. I was going to ask if you wanted to do something Friday.  
_

Darcy's eyebrows rose in surprise. He'd never been so direct.

_You could come round?  
_

_What to yours?  
_

_Yeah. We could watch films or something.  
_

_Would he be there?  
_

_Yeah but don't worry, he's harmless. He just skulks in his room.  
_

She had to wait a bit for his response. _  
_

_Okay. What time?  
_

_Seven?  
_

_Sounds good. I've got to go now, something about Banner going hulk.  
_

_Okay, see you.  
_

She smiled at the screen. It was kind of nice to have something to think about other than Loki and Jane. And she'd managed to get rid of the slightly guilty feeling she'd had that she hadn't spoken to him in a while. It was weird because she'd been crazy about him for so long...she was sort of struggling to remember why.

"All right," A voice boomed behind them. "Gather round."

_Fuck_, Darcy thought as she turned round. A visit from Fury was never good, look what the last one had gotten her: a homicidal deranged Norse god who acted like a sullen teenager.

He walked into the room with two guards at his shoulders, both with guns in their arms. Fury's hand's were behind his back calmly but she recognised the set of his face: he was angry. Loki looked curiously up from his equation, a slight smirk playing on his lips as he saw fury. Darcy tried not to grin, she wasn't saying she approved of Loki's attitude but it was hilarious to watch Fury react to it. You know, when said reactions don't involve her living with a murderer. Jane stuttered a hurried farewell to the scientist as she hung up.

"Sit." He snarled, gesturing to the long metal table in the middle of the room which currently had various scientific notes scattered across it that Jane wouldn't let Darcy tidy up. Darcy immediately took the seat nearest her, Jane doing the same thing so that she was a seat over from her. Loki walked slowly, as though refusing to let Fury hurry him.

"You too." He spat at Loki who raised his hands in mock surrender and took the seat between her and Jane. She noticed he had a slight gleam in his eye and realised just why they called him the God of Mischief. His eyes lit up like a kid who'd put itching powder in his mum's bed while the rest of his expression showed boredom.

Fury started pacing in front of them, not saying anything to be dramatic.

"Is there a point to your visit or are you just catwalking to show off?" Darcy asked after a few minutes, growing rather nervous that he was here because of last night. She thought she saw Loki smirk from the corner of her eye but she kept her focus on Fury.

He stopped walking and glared at her but it wasn't really different from his normal look. "You wanna rephrase that?" He growled. "I can h-"

"Yeah yeah you can fire me, whatever I've had this talk before." She told him. The guards looked surprised, even Jane looked at her warningly. "What are you doing here, Fury?"

"You want to-"

"No." She cut him off bluntly, standing up and slamming her hands on the desk, surprising herself with the anger that had suddenly overcome her. "We both know you're not going to fire me because if you do then guess who magically comes with me. You don't want to lose your Norse God then you don't want to lose me." The words were true but she hadn't even thought them before. Something about Fury today was really irritating her, she supposed she just wasn't in the mood for his utter bullshit.

Fury held her gaze for a few moments. "Sit down." He said sternly. She hesitated before doing what he said. She didn't want to push it too far, just because he couldn't get rid of her didn't mean he wouldn't make her life hell.

"You," He snapped, looking at Loki. "We had an arrangement."

Loki arched one perfect eyebrow. "As far as I am aware," He spoke slowly. His voice sent goosebumps of Darcy's skin, she'd never noticed before just how gorgeous it was. The accent and the tone- well when he wasn't threatening people that was. The promise of death did tend to override the way the words were being said. "I have not broken the terms of it."

"Oh really?" Fury asked. Then again, Darcy thought, maybe Loki's voice was only nice in comparison to Fury's growl. He made Mad Eye Moody's voice sound irresistible. "You wouldn't want to explain last night then?"

Jane turned on Loki. "What about last night?" She asked, worried.

"She doesn't know?" Fury asked with a grin. "These two here had a nice little midnight chat."

Jane looked at Darcy with an expression akin to betrayal, not out of annoyance at the action but because she would have expected Darcy to have told her. Darcy held her gaze, she wasn't going to look away ashamed just because she hadn't had a chance to tell Jane yet and Fury was being a dick about it.  
Then Jane did something that surprised her. She turned to Fury looking extremely angry. "And how would you know that, Director?"

"What do you mean, Foster?" He asked.

"I mean," Jane sounded seriously pissed off, Darcy couldn't remember the last time. It was scary, she was one of those people who got quieter and more formal when angry. "That last time I checked, you did not live with us. And if you do not live with us then I don't see how you could know that unless, for example, you had recording equipment in our house. Which, Director, you've always adamantly denied."

Fury's expression didn't change at all. "So what? We have recording equipment. You thought we'd put _him_ somewhere without knowing what was going on?"

"You really don't trust me?" Loki asked, feigning innocence.

"What do you want anyway?" Darcy added. "So what we talked? You're the one who put us in a house together! I didn't really think talking would be one of your concerns."

"My concern, Miss Lewis," Fury's voice rose and he leant over the desk to her. "Is what occurred in that discussion. Namely, this."

He reached forward before she could react and pulled the sleeve of her red jumper back, revealing the yellowing bruises on her wrist. They looked a lot worse than they did last night.

"Loki, you didn't..." Jane said quietly. She sounded disappointed, Darcy supposed she just couldn't resist being all motherly.

"It was an accident." Darcy and Loki said at the same time. She felt colour rise to her cheeks, she couldn't believe she was defending him. All she knew was that it was different when she was the one shouting at Loki for it, it was like Fury was saying she couldn't stand up for herself.

"It was an accident." Loki repeated calmly, sounding bored though he shot her a brief glare out of the corner of his eye. She couldn't tell if that was because she'd had the nerve to get bruises or because she'd said the same thing as him.

"An accident?" Fury asked disbelievingly. "What part of if you hurt either one of these girls-"

"_Girls_?" Darcy asked in disgust.

"Women," Fury corrected. "Do you not understand?"

"If I wanted to hurt either one of them do you not think they would have a few more marks than those?" Loki asked as though dealing with an annoying child.

"The marks are simply there because I was not aware of just how easily mortals were injured. Now that I am acquainted with the extent of your weakness, I assure you it won't happen again."

Fury continued to glare at him disbelievingly.

Loki arched an eyebrow. "Do you not have something better to be doing?"

"This is the only warning you're going to get-"

"Yeah yeah Fury." Darcy said. "We get it."

He gave her an icy glare before storming out of the room in a swirl of black leather. She didn't realise how quickly her heart was racing until he was gone.  
Loki started to stand up but Jane put her arm on his. He flinched away and shot her a look of pure venom, a hundred times worse than any he'd sent at her.  
"Wait," Jane said. Loki stood up but didn't walk away. "What happened last night?"

Loki sighed annoyed and pushed past her to return to his equations. Jane's questioning gaze turned to Darcy.

"Nothing, we just spoke." Darcy told her.

"And what about the bruises?"

"He just grabbed my arm, it's like he said."

"You expect me to believe someone who flinches when touched, purposely grabbed your arm?" She raised a sceptical eyebrow.

"No Jane, obviously not. I gave myself the bruises. How else do you think they got there?" Darcy snapped, her anger at Fury being displaced to Jane.

Jane refused to partake in any argument, however. "I just want to know what happened."

"I just told you." Darcy spat. "It's not my fault if you're too stubborn to believe it."

She stormed over to where Jane had been working and started to clean it up.

"What are you doing?" Jane asked.

"My job. You might want to do yours."

* * *

Chapter Title from Twin Atlantic's Time For You To Stand Up.


	7. Chapter 7: Another Fight

"You finished The Lord of The Rings?" Darcy asked in surprise as she entered the room. It had taken her just over a month and yet Loki had managed in just a few days. He looked up lazily from the new book he was reading, The Magician's Guild. She stifled a laugh, The Lord of The Rings was at least a classic, as great as The Magician's Guild was, it was far too amusing thinking of Loki reading it.

"Obviously." He replied curtly before pointedly turning the page. She found it difficult to tear her eyes from him as she leant against the door frame. He had a lazy way of sitting that made every chair, even the plain leather one he was on, look like a throne. And she had to admit, he looked quite at home on one with his legs sprawled out in front of him as he leant against the corner. She hadn't really realised how tall he was either, he was shorter than Thor but that didn't mean much.

"Is there a reason you are staring at me?" He asked without looking up from the book, an arrogant smirk playing at the corner of his lips.

His words felt like sandpaper. He had progressed to the point of every action being irritating, quite a feat in just over a week.

"Oh, you know, you're just sooo irresistible." She mocked. He ignored her. "So why all the reading?"

"Even literature written by mortals is better than the company of actual mortals." He said.

"Are you capable of speaking any sentence that doesn't insult someone?" Darcy asked.

"Of course," He replied, smirking but still not looking up from the book. "But where's the fun in that?"

"You know," Darcy said, walking over to the sofa. "Normal people have a hobby. Like golf. You should start golf."

He turned the page, his face full of utter disinterest. She suppressed a smile. He could fake being as bored as he liked but he kept the conversation going.

Then she realised with a start that it hadn't even been twenty four hours since their first actual conversation and yet they were talking like they'd known each other for years. Not like they'd been friends for years but it was still a lot bigger "something" than previously.

"Do I have to remind you that on no realm am I considered normal?" He asked.

Darcy opened her mouth in mock shock. "You mean there is no realm for insane, homicidal people with daddy issues?"

She expected him to get angry, she was kind of hoping he would because at least a Loki she could argue with made sense. Instead he dryly replied: "Yes, I believe you call it America."

Darcy laughed. "Careful, the house is bugged." She joked. "And you're kind of under the protection of the US government."

"Bugged?" Loki asked confused. He furrowed his eyebrows slightly, the way he did when working on a complex maths problem.

"You know, cameras and stuff." She clarified.

"Ahh." He said, looking up from his book to look out at the room, locating a camera in the corner and staring at it. "Yes, I, Loki of Asgard, leader of the army who destroyed New York dislike America."

Darcy smiled. She wanted to laugh, sarcasm was after all her favourite form of comedy but there was something in the "army who destroyed New York" part of his comment that stopped her. "Right," She said instead, feeling the need to defend her country. "Because we all would have been a lot better off under your rule."

"Of course you would." He replied bluntly.

"Ahh so should I kneel now or wait for you to call in your chitauri backup first?" If she hadn't been watching him so carefully she wouldn't have noticed the way he winced ever so slightly when she said the word "Chitauri." She supposed he was ashamed to have lost with them as support.

"Now will suffice." He told her and she wasn't sure if he was joking until he looked at her, his eyes sparkling with a muted version of the mischief she'd seen in them earlier.

"Seriously though," Darcy said, oddly conscious of the fact SHIELD were listening in. "You can't honestly expect me to believe that the first thing you would have done if you'd won would be anything but kill us all."

Loki rolled his eyes. "You mortals severely overestimate your own importance."

"Yeah right, sorry for that while we're the ones protecting you from daddy Odin." She said. He glared at her. She held his gaze but her insides squirmed uncomfortably, wondering if she'd maybe pushed it too far this time. She did the only thing she could think of: push it further. "Without us you'd still be his personal punching bag."

His nostrils flared and her skin crawled. She prepared herself to be turned into a cockroach or whatever he did to annoying mortals when movement in the corner of her eye made her turn. A snake was moving towards her, it was as long as a python and twice as thick with red, yellow and black stripes. At the same moment she felt like a nail was being driven into her skull.

She winced but managed a laugh, somehow aware of the fact that it was Loki's doing, the pain and the snake. Loki's glare flickered to brief confusion before returning back to pure hatred.

"Really?" She asked derisively "I live in New Mexico, genius. I'm not scared of snakes."

He contemplated her for a moment and the snake exploded into thousands of huge black spiders, so big that she could see the fur and count each eye. Or maybe she was imagining that part. _Shit_. How had he known? Her head erupted in pain, as though the earlier nail had successfully split her skull in two.

She gulped and forced herself to turn back to him, raising her eyebrows and wishing she could give a better scathing look, unfortunately it was hard to be intimidating when you only just reached five foot four. Let alone to intimidate a six foot God.

"Spiders?" She asked, aiming for the same tone that she'd said snakes. Unfortunately she was a few notes too high. He was walking over to her slowly. She stayed where she was, trying to keep her eyes on the spiders and him at the same time. Despite her fear of spiders she had absolutely no problem reminding herself that he was the more dangerous one.

"I think so." He said, each word dripping with hate and menace so that it bit at her like frost. He was in front of her, so close that she could smell the leather of his clothes and his soap and the cleanness only felt in cold air. The air seemed to freeze around her but she knew that she was imagining it.

And she was pissed off.

Unfortunately, she was also pretty terrified of the spiders she could just see getting closer. And her headache was getting worse.

"You mortals," He drawled. "You think yourselves so complex, so important. You couldn't be more wrong. You are nothing more than a combination of chance. What you think makes you individual is so repetitive it becomes nothing. Your fears, your loves, your hates you will lose it all and you will die. Trust someone who's watched it happen. Over two thousand years of humanity and you have achieved nothing."

The first spider reached her foot and began to climb. He towered over her, his face twisted into a merciless smile.

"You're wrong." She said bluntly, her voice surprisingly steady.

He exhaled sharply in amusement. He opened his mouth to continue but she cut him off.

"Do you not think that some other being would say that of you?" She asked, letting her anger fill each word with spite. "You're not so different from us. Look at you. You're aopted. Yeah humans have that. Daddy issues. People have that too. The difference is that we're able to handle it without throwing world's biggest temper tantrum."

"You have no-"

"Idea?" She spat, furious. "Everyone has problems, you dick. Yeah I get it, you're from Asgard. Your lives are bigger, problems bigger, consequences bigger...whatever. You think that magically makes your pain bigger too?" A spider was crawling up her arm, everything inside her telling her to run round screaming to get it off but she stayed put. "Jane's parents died when she was ten!" She screamed, tears filling her eyes, though none spilling over. "My best friend..." She stopped, her voice catching and changed to a different example. "Erik had depression for a year after you fucked with his mind! And what you think that because you're from Asgard that makes your pain worth more than ours?

"You are so selfish. Yeah you've had a sucky life, well join the fricking club."

His face had paled. He looked almost ill. When he spoke it was a menacing hiss. "I was born to be king, you pathetic mortal."

"Yeah yeah so you tried to take over this world, I'm quite familiar with the story." More spiders were on her now, pushing her over her tolerance. It's an illusion she told herself, concentrating on not seeing it. To her surprise they disappeared like mist in a fan. Loki looked just as shocked as she felt.

"How did you do that?" He asked.

"I guess the pathetic mortal has some tricks." She said smoothly, telling herself she'd think about it later. She was breathing heavily, she realised in surprise.

And so was he, she realised even more surprised.

He shook his head. "You are ridiculous."

"Yeah maybe but I'm human. We don't like being ruled or told what to do." She glared.

He shook his head again. "Freedom is an illusion." He said.

She snorted. "Yeah, maybe under your rule."

"Under everyone's ." He snarled, his voice suddenly tight with intensity. She remembered what he'd said last night. _Everyone kneels in the end.  
_

"Yeah the last time you said stuff like that it was Stuttgart and I don't think you need the reminder of what happened." She told him.

He took a step back and she felt her muscles loosen slightly, she hadn't realised how tense she'd been. His eyes narrowed at her curiously. "I was under the impression SHIELD blocked the footage."

"I hacked it." She said. "I saw the whole performance."

"_You_ hacked SHIELD?" He repeated disbelievingly.

"Yeah." She replied. "They shipped Jane and I off to a meeting in Switzerland as soon as they found out you were here. Of course when we got there they had no clue what we were doing there. We knew something was up so I hacked the footage. It wasn't exactly hard."

He looked annoyed, the corners of his lips turned down slightly. "Anyone else would have run by now." He said it matter-of-factly but it sounded very much like a threat to Darcy.

"Yeah well I don't run from washed up Asgard outcasts." She told him. "Honestly, the spiders were scarier than you."

He raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"I'm not an idiot-"

"Really?"

She glared at him and continued. "I know you could kill me. There's just a difference between being scared and not caring."

"You don't care if you die?" He asked in the same disbelieving tone.

"We all gotta go some time, right?" She joked, poking his leather coated stomach and hoping it hurt. "And no that's not an invitation to kill me. I had no problems with not existing before I existed so no, no fear of death over here."

"Everyone fears it." He said.

"Umm didn't you throw yourself off the bifrost?" She asked. He glared at her again but it was more resigned this time, like she'd lost the power to say things he found intrusive.

"Why do you work at SHIELD?" He asked suddenly.

"Wow," She said, leaning back against the wall, pushing against it with her foot. "Bit of a conversation change. Umm, because the money is good."

He stared at her impassively and she felt the need to go on.

"And I can work with Jane. And I'm a political science major, it's a lot better than anything else I could hope for."

"So you'll stay a research assistant forever?" He asked mockingly.

"Oh god no." She replied.

"Then you'll leave SHIELD?"

"No." She replied awkwardly.

"So you'll get a better job at SHIELD?"

"Well no, I mean I'm lucky enough to have this one."

He smiled, giving her the uncontrollable urge to slap him. "You know why you won't leave."

"Because they'd take my memory," She said, hating herself for answering him but unable to stop herself all the same. "The only reason I have this job is because of all the stuff that happened with Thor. They'd never let me walk away with what I know."

"Freedom." He muttered.

"Yeah because things would be better with you ruling us." She snapped.

He shrugged. "You're no ordinary mortal." He said it like it was a huge insult. "A position more befitting your skills. Cleaning, perhaps?"

"Go to hell." She snapped.

"I've been there." He replied smoothly.

"Oh God are we back to therapy time with Loki? Sit," She gestured to the sofa. "I'll tell you how great you actually have it."

He just looked at her, bored. Why was it that when she wanted a reaction he didn't give her one and when she wanted him to be calm he flew off the handle? It's like he knew just what would annoy her most and did it.

"You know, how do you think Thor felt when you turned all dark side?" She asked, it was a low play but she needed to provoke him, she felt as though it were very important. "One moment his brother is being supportive the next he's trying to kill him before faking his own death only to return and try to destroy everything Thor loves. I'd say when it comes to being you or being your brother, Thor got the worse deal."

It had the desired effect, his eyes danced with green fire, standing out against his nearly translucent skin. "You-"

"What's this about Thor?" Jane asked, entering the room with unmistakable crumpled paper marks on her forehead. She'd fallen asleep doing work again then, Darcy decided. Loki's lips curled at her.

"How do you know him anyway?" He asked, clasping his hands behind his back in mock politeness.

Jane looked shocked. It was probably the first time Loki had spoken to her other than to threaten her or because of science. "He's my boyfriend." Jane told him.

Loki raised his eyebrows. "Really?" He asked. "He's never mentioned you."

Jane's face paled. "Don't be ridiculous."

"Ridiculous?" Darcy could see the corners of his lips twitching. "I am merely telling you the truth. It is you who is clinging to ridiculous fantasies."

Normally Jane would slap him but clearly he'd hit one of her greatest fears. She turned and stormed away, her fingers going to her eyes to wipe away the tears Darcy couldn't see. She should have been angry, only she was allowed to taunt Jane over Thor but all she could feel was pity towards Loki. How utterly pathetic did a God have to be to get his kicks from taunting mortals over their relationships?

"Why did you do that?" She asked.

"Why?" He repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"Forget it." She said, suddenly no longer in the mood to mock him.

He gave her a strange look as though waiting for her to carry on. He raised his fingers to his temples, right where she currently had a bad headache.

"Headache?" She asked.

His eyes snapped to her, shock, worry and confusion etched upon his face in the split second before he could look disdainful again. "I'm going to bed." He snapped.

* * *

Chapter title from Coldplay's Christmas Lights because I'm feeling festive. A short chapter but I have a cutesy one coming up. Updates may be a little slower over the next couple of weeks because it's quite a busy period but I'll try. As always, thanks for reading and for the reviews.


	8. Chapter 8: Spinning Circles

Darcy woke in the morning to the kind of grogginess which could only mean one thing: she was ill.

She sat up straight in bed, more alert than she thought she'd ever been at this time in the morning. She, Darcy Lewis, did not get ill.

Yet even as she thought that her head began to pound like she was hungover. She had to open her mouth to breathe and her throat felt more scratched and raw than after a shouting match with Loki.

_Loki_, she thought.

She clambered clumsily out of bed and pulled on a dressing gown over her pyjamas. Her room was freezing, so cold she was struggling not to shiver. After cramming her feet into slippers, she managed to stumble across the hallway to Loki's door.

She raised her fist and thumped on it louder than she had done before. She waited a few moments and banged again. "Get up!" She tried to shout but it came out as a scratchy whisper so she pounded on the door again.

Darcy pulled her dressing gown tighter around her. Why was the house so cold?

She raised her hand to knock again when the door opened. Loki was leaning against the door frame looking rather dazed. His eyes were barely open, his skin so pale it appeared to glow and his nose tinted slightly pink. This was not what shocked Darcy the most, however.

"What?" Loki asked disgruntled, staring down at her.

"You're wearing pyjamas." She stated. They were long sleeved and black, the kind that she thought only rich people wore that ought to have had embroidered initials on the pockets. Even so, the thought of Loki not clad in leather armour was so startling as to be absurd. Yet here he was.

He looked down at his clothes then back at her with a look of annoyance. "What did you think I slept in?"

"A coffin?" She suggested.

"What do you want?" He asked, ignoring her.

"How are you feeling?" She asked.

His head snapped to her, all drowsy grogginess gone. She stifled a grin, she supposed she'd never said something that polite to him.

"I knew it. You're ill too."

"I'm what?" He asked.

"Ill." She repeated. "You know, like sick."

He gave her another confused look.

"You've never been ill before?" She asked.

He sneered at her. "I'm an immortal God of Asgard, I don't get ill."

"Well you are." She sang. She grabbed his arm and pulled him forwards through the corridor. To her surprise he didn't protest.

"Where are we going?" He asked. She figured he must still be half asleep to allow her to touch him. She was suddenly hyper aware of ever millimetre of skin that was touching him and realised that her clammy ill person hands probably weren't the nicest.

She led him into the kitchen where Jane was pouring out cereal.

"We," Darcy announced, "Are ill."

Jane looked at them both and crossed her arms. "You two seem to have made up." She commented.

Darcy looked at him. He looked bored. "Yeah well you know I don't do grudges. Anyway, your pet science boy can't go into work today."

"I see." Jane said, watching them. "You both look horrible."

"Thanks, Jane." Darcy said.

"Oh you know what I mean." Jane snapped. "But you were both fine yesterday."

"Look, are you actually questioning our illness?" Darcy asked. "Because please, do go get one of your SHIELD doctors. Let's see if any are brave enough to stick a stethoscope on him."

"You know, I am right here." He pointed out.

Darcy nudged him. "I'm well aware of that, Frost Brain." Before mouthing to Jane "See, his brain is just..." and shaking her head.

"Again," Loki said, his voice sounding bored. "I am right here."

"Okay, so you know where you are." She patted his arm patronisingly. "Anyway Jane, we are going to go be ill properly."

"You're never ill." Jane commented. "You have the best immune system in the world. And you're ill."

"Yes Jane, well noted. God, is everyone here a bit slow this morning?" Darcy paused to cough before continuing. "I refuse to be ill any longer which means I have to get better. Which means we have a long day of doing ill people stuff."

"We?" He asked sceptically.

"Yes, _we_" she said with a poke to his wrist – a place she knew to be thankfully bruise free. "This stupid magical bond thingy means that if I want to get better then I have to get you better too."

"Right." He nodded before turning round. "I'm going back to bed."

"Oh no you're not," Darcy said, quickly grabbing at his wrist. "Living room. Now."

He gave her a look which could only be translated as "are you serious?"

"Go." She told him. He raised his hands in mock surrender and left. Darcy opened her mouth in exaggerated shock at Jane.

"Was he just-"

"I think so." Darcy answered.

"That's weird." Jane said before thinking for a moment. "Then again he does like you so."

"He likes me?" Darcy scoffed. "We've had like two conversations."

"And how many times has he threatened to brutally murder you?"

Darcy crossed her arms. "That doesn't mean anything, I have this stupid spell with him. If he tried to kill me he'd die too."

"He hasn't killed me yet but he threatened to like five times in our first conversation." Jane pointed out.

"Ahh you're right, he hasn't threatened to slaughter me yet so he must like me!"

"You joke but it _is_ Loki. I think that's as close to kindness as the jerk gets."

"Is this about last night?" Darcy asked.

"No." Jane said too quickly.

"Ignore him." Darcy said firmly. "If Thor didn't care about you would he have sent you his psychotic brother?"

Jane smiled. "Maybe that was his way of showing he hates me."

"Yeah well I'm the one with the curse so it'll be me having words with the oaf when you get through to him. Speaking of, you have to go."

"Okay," Jane said, getting up and swinging her back onto her shoulder. "Have fun and please let the house still be standing when I return."

"No promises." Darcy muttered as she went into the living room.

Loki was splayed out as per usual in his arm chair, resting his head in his hands.

"Are you all right?" She asked.

"The room is spinning." He said matter-of-factly.

"Oh joy, guess I have all that to come." Darcy said, walking over to the cupboard and pulling out her old fluffy blanket. She couldn't smell because of the cold but she knew it would carry the scent of their pre-Loki home: burnt coffee and cheap laundry detergent. There were few smells more comforting. "Come on, on the sofa."

He raised an eyebrow but the effect was lost given that he was plainly sick and in pyjamas. "Really?"

"Oh calm down, sitting next to me is not going to kill you or make you mortal or whatever your pee-sized brain is imagining. This blanket is magic and we need to get better." She sat down and patted the space next to her. Loki reluctantly moved, glaring at her the entire time. She threw the blanket over him and pulled her own half up to her chin.

"You know," He said, his voice sounding hoarse, and though she wouldn't admit it, incredibly sexy. "As someone who can actually do magic, this blanket is really not living up to expectations."

Her head turned to his, momentarily forgetting that he was next to her and finding herself staring straight into his clear green eyes. Clear green eyes that despite their evident sorrow still managed to yell "die puny mortal!"

"Could you magic us better?" She asked. His face, if possible, went even paler.

"No." He snapped.

"Umm okay." She could feel the warmth coming from his body without its usual leather barrier. "Anyway, first ill person activity. Movies."

He raised his eyebrows at her. She was really starting to get used to this exasperated "really?" look of his.

"Hmm I'm guessing you won't want to watch the film adaptation of The Battle of New York..."

"They made it entertainment?" He shook his head in exasperation. "Mortals."

"You aren't even in it seeming as no one knows about your involvement." Darcy told him.

"Then what's the point? Everyone knows I'm the only interesting one." He said and she couldn't be sure if he was joking that level of arrogance though she thought he probably was.

"Interesting...psychotic...same thing" Darcy replied absently as she went through the DVDs. "Anyway I'm thinking Lord of the Rings seeming as you've read the books."

"But I've read the books." Loki stated. "Does that not defeat the purpose?"

"No because the lord of the rings films are great but now that you've read the books you can complain about how much better they are. You just have to watch the film in order to complain."

"Is this really how you mortals spend your time?" He asked.

"Only when ill." Darcy told him, deciding it would be too embarrassing to admit that if she could, she would spend every day having film marathons.

He tilted his head back to look up at the ceiling as though praying, or more likely cursing whichever God sent him here...which Darcy supposed was Thor. "Play the movie." He said in a monotone.

"Great." Darcy said as she set it up. When she was done she climbed back under the blanket, her foot accidentally brushing against Loki's leg. He flinched.

"Don't touch me." He snarled.

"Dude," She laughed. "Chill, I'm hardly doing it on purpose."

He looked at her coldly for a few moments before turning his gaze back upon the screen where it did not move for the entire duration of the film. As often happened when showing her favourite films to people, Darcy had watched more of him than of the film. His expression hasn't changed once.

"Well?" She asked at the end.

"I preferred the book." He said.

"Pfft mortal." She told him with a poke. "Right it's lunch time."

He looked at her vacantly.

"I know you don't normally eat but I feel like hell so we have to get better." He said nothing as she picked her mobile up off of the coffee table. She tapped the necessary buttons and held it to her ear. After dialling a few times she picked up.

"Darcy?" she sounded alarmed. "Are you all right? Is everything okay?"

"We are fine, Jane." Darcy said, doing her 'Thor' voice. "But this mortal form hath grown weak, I require sustenance. Uh, Loki too."

There was silence for a few moments.

"Are you...are you seriously phoning me at work to ask me to bring you food?"

"Yes."

"Darcy!" Jane scolded.

"Soup would be great, thank you fair maiden." She held the voice bit to her chest and turned to Loki. "What kind of soup do you want?" She whispered.

He looked at her sceptically. "If Jane is cooking then none."

She snickered. "Yes very good point," She said into the phone. "We don't want any if you're cooking. Get someone to send us soup."

"You have got to be kidding me." Jane said on the other end.

"We're iiiiill!" Darcy whined.

"And I am working!" Jane hissed.

"Jaaaaane."

"Goodbye, Darcy." Jane replied agitatedly and hung up.

"Right, that was fun." Darcy said. "Now I'm going to go make us food."

Loki frowned at her. "Then what was that?"

She grinned. "I have a certain quota of people to annoy per day. Given that you're being oddly...passive today I figured Jane was the next best."

He raised his eyebrows and shook his head.

"What?" She asked.

"Believe me, you do not wish to know what I'm thinking." He replied. She rolled her eyes.

She walked into the kitchen and dug out a tin of tomato soup before pouring the contents into a pan. Without the blanket, it was freezing and her head was swimming. She seemed to remember it taking a few days to get to this stage of illness. Perhaps the connection with Loki was speeding it up? She hoped that meant she'd get better sooner.

"Drink this." She told Loki when she returned, thrusting the mug of soup into his hands. He looked at it with disgust and then back at her.

"Drink it." She told him sternly, sitting back next to him and curling her legs up, careful not to touch him.

He took a sip and grimaced. "Soup." He stated in disgust. "The food of peasants."

"And ill people." Darcy told him. "You managed dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets, I think you can deal with soup."

He glared at her so she tapped her mug to his. "Cheers." She grinned and drank, the hot soup soothing her sore throat.

"And drink it all." She told him. "None of your pitiful portions. I do not want to be ill again tomorrow. Now next movie."

She fell asleep after about half an hour. When she woke, the movie had finished and Loki was sat next to her reading. Her head was about an inch from his leg and the blanket was draped around her. She quickly pulled herself upright. She was surprised Loki hadn't moved.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" She asked. Throwing some of the blanket back over him, he looked just as pale but less weary, like her nap had helped him too.

He didn't turn his head from the book. "I did not particularly care enough to." He said bluntly.

"You're feeling better then." She said, rubbing her eyes. And she did too, marginally. "What did you think of the film?"

He shrugged. "I disliked the premise."

"The what?" She asked.

"The concept." He said. "There is the 'villain' yet you are told almost nothing about him. It's just assumed that he's 'evil.'"

"From one villain to another?" She joked. He glared at her.

"You believe that people must either be evil or good?"

She frowned. "Well no but you're more evil than most."

"Right." He said, sounding almost disappointed. "I'm just the maniac that almost destroyed New York."

"No." She told him, figuring now was as good a time as any. "That was bad but you've obviously been punished for that. I really don't care about that. You're evil because you think it's fun to toy with people, like mocking Jane about Thor. I dislike you because you're arrogant, selfish and rude. New York I really couldn't care less about, that's in your past though I suppose some regret might be nice. You're not the god who caused chaos, you're just a jerk who complains about soup."

He smiled and looked at the ceiling. She didn't think she'd ever seen anything so self deprecating before.

"You don't have to do it, you know." She told him. "You don't have to make everyone your enemy. Whatever messed up stuff you have in your past, we aren't a part of it. And we don't really have much choice over being near each other."

He looked at her scornfully. "I cannot change my nature."

"I'm not asking you to." She said. "Just stop being so hurt all the time and pushing people away. I get it." And she realised that she kind of did get it. He didn't want to get hurt again. So he didn't want to let anyone in. Yeah he might have spouted that he was better than everyone and maybe he believed it but she knew that that was just a result of the pain of his past. It wasn't like he was the only one to do that. In fact, hadn't she done exactly the same thing?

"Don't try to understand me." He spat.

"I'm not trying to." She said harshly suddenly annoyed that he didn't think she could share the feeling of pain. Like he had a monopoly on being hurt. She'd had enough of being angry with him, however. "I'm trying to say that you don't have to make us your enemies. Believe me, I am so not in to all this talk about your feelings crap so this is the last time I'm going to say it. You have to move on, I figure this magic thing probably means I'm a good place to start with that and if you ever do want to talk about the emotional stuff then I'm here, you know, rather than blowing up New York again."

He looked at her curiously and she could almost see the clogs of his emotions turning: anger, annoyance, confusion. After a few moments he spoke. "There's a third movie isn't there?"

Jane came home late, as she so often did when Darcy wasn't there to make her stop. She entered just as the credits rolled.

"Did you two have fun?" She asked.

Loki rolled his eyes and grabbed his book. "It was a blast." Darcy told her. "Have I mentioned that I hate being ill?"

"Maybe, I don't really listen." Jane said. "I brought pizza."

"Wow bit late for the food we asked for." Darcy said.

"You both look better." Jane said. "And I think we're getting somewhere with the research. I was on the phone to Erik and he sent over some notes that I think you ought to have a look at tomorrow."

"I can hardly wait." Loki answered dryly.

"You will be back in tomorrow, won't you?" She asked.

"Yes." Darcy replied firmly.

Jane laughed. "What? Your day was that bad?"

Darcy looked at Loki. "Nah it was actually kinda fun."

"Speak for yourself." Loki grumbled next to her.

She nudged him with her elbow. "God of lies." She reminded him in a whisper. She thought she saw him smile from the corner of her eye but was too busy looking at Jane. "Now pizza?"

Jane took a slice and brought the rest of the pizza over to them.

Darcy took the biggest piece and handed he box to Loki but he shook his head. "You have to eat." She told him.

He ignored her and returned to his book.

"I'm going to go work in my room." Jane said. "I'll see you later."

When she left, Darcy leant back against the arm of the sofa and prodded Loki's leg with her toe. He glanced up, surprisingly unperturbed by her touch. "Why aren't you eating?"

"I'm not hungry." He said as though it were obvious.

"When your brother was here I think he only stopped eating so that he could smooch Jane." She pointed out.

He smirked. "In case you haven't noticed, there are more than a few differences between Thor and I."

She narrowed her eyes. "Your humour will not save you now, God of Mischief." She said ominously. "Eat."

Never had she seen a look which read "bitch, please" so blatantly before. "You won't get better if you don't eat."

"I'm touched by your concern." He replied curtly but he relented and picked up a slice, giving it the same disgusted look he gave the soup.

"Nope, you so did not just give that filthy look to pizza." Darcy said.

"I think I actually preferred the dungeons." He said, grimacing as he took a bite so small she didn't know how he could taste it.

"You're weird." She told him.

"Yes," He replied. "_This_ is what makes me abnormal."

She laughed and he smiled. In the back of her mind was a small voice reminding her that this was not right. That she ought to be running away, petrified. But something about it felt so ordinary, not right exactly but as if there could be no suggestion it was wrong. She felt utterly comfortable. She didn't know if it was because he was so...complex that he made her feel normal or just because they got along but it was as though they'd been best friends since childhood. She decided she liked ill Loki.

He was watching her with a slight smirk playing on his face. "What?" She asked, feeling a ridiculous blush creep into her cheeks.

He shook his head, the smirk stretching slightly.

"You're a jerk." She said, throwing the nearest pillow at him. He batted it away lazily.

"You might have mentioned that." He said. "But I've been called worse."

He meant it jokingly, she knew that but she couldn't help over analysing everything he was saying and that last sentence seemed to hang heavily in the air.

"How're your marks?" She asked.

The mood perceptibly changed. "Why?" He asked with hostility.

"Because I care, Frost Brain." She said, then added hastily. "Besides, we're magically connected, who knows if I'll wake up with them."

He scowled. "They're fine." Her eyes wandered to the scar that jutted across the top of his eye, remembering that that was with magic healing and Asgardian immunity.

She was about to ask to see them but didn't see how any change in them would make her feel better. "So have you seriously never been ill before?" She asked him, to change the topic.

He clearly noticed the intent of the question because he arched an eyebrow at her before answering. "Not since I was a child. We have illness on Asgard but I control it with magic."

"And what, you can't anymore?" She asked. She thought she saw something change in his face, an imperceptible tightening of his muscles before he relaxed them again.

"I did not factor the link with you into the spell." He told her smoothly.

"Spell?" She repeated. "God, you've been reading too many fantasy books."

"You have quite the collection." He said with a smirk.

"Yeah well, come on." She said, standing up.

"Where?" He scowled.

"We're ill. Early night." She said, grabbing his hand. "Bed."

"Mortals really aren't my type." He joked, allowing himself to be pulled up.

"Ha ha." Darcy deadpanned. "Your room. Now."

"Are you always so bossy?" He asked as she pushed him up the stairs.

"Yes." She answered. Loki shrugged. "Now sleep," She said when she was outside his door. "If I'm still ill in the morning it will be your fault and I will not be happy."

"A truly terrifying prospect." Loki mocked, closing his door and leaving Darcy wondering what the hell had happened that day.

* * *

Chapter title from Mayday Parade's Happy Endings Are Stories That Haven't Finished Yet. Hopefully that song title will not be a reflection of this fic... I wrote this chapter when I had writer's block but I decided I could work it in to the plot.


	9. Chapter 9: The Boys You Do

Like magic, Darcy's cold was gone in the morning, leaving her with just the feeling of being drained that only came from illness. Nonetheless, she woke for possibly the first time with a smile on her face and went gleefully to wake Loki.

Over the next few days they didn't really speak much, both of them being so busy at work. Well Darcy being busy at work, Jane rushing her around. If anything, the more Jane whined, the less Loki worked.

On Friday, Jane had gone up to her room to work. Darcy was alternating between reading and listening to her iPod, too exhausted to do either one for long. Loki sat in the corner, reading in his armchair.

The doorbell rang and Darcy scowled. Her first thought was annoyance at whoever was there, her second that no one ought to have been able to get past the guards anyway. The number of guards had dramatically reduced to just five, one for each side of the house and one to monitor camera footage, but either way they should have stopped whoever it was.

Loki seemed to reach the second thought quicker than she did because he raised an eyebrow at her. She shrugged and got up, folding the page corner to mark her place.

"Adam!" She squeaked when she opened the door.

"Hey," He grinned revealing a row of brilliant white teeth. His brown hair was in its usual messy mop and his blue eyes sparkled at the sight of her. He was wearing a blue printed t shirt and jeans with a brown blazer thrown over the top with his hands in his pockets to get that "I'm not actually making an effort to look so hot" look. Most people who found him on their doorstep would not have reacted with the dread that Darcy felt.

All she was aware of however was the fact that her hair was twisted into a messy bun, she was wearing a jumper so old she'd picked holes in the sleeves and that she'd taken her make up off the moment she got home.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, not intending it to come out so harshly.

"We...we had plans..." He stuttered, his prior confidence utterly disappearing.

Darcy suddenly remembered the existence of their movie night. "Right," She covered, smiling up him nervously. "I just meant you're early."

He ran a hand through his hair. "I'm uh, ten minutes late."

"Uh yeah," She said through her gritted teeth as she continued to force a smile. "I thought we said, half past."

"Oh," He said, then after a second. "I can come back?"

"No!" She said hurriedly, grabbing his wrist and pulling him in. She was surprised when he didn't flinch at her touch and realised she'd just become accustomed to Loki doing so. Then she worried at how much she'd been touching Loki to get used to him. "Just give me a moment."

She bolted to her room, pulled her hair out of the bun and slapped some lipgloss and mascara on- her bare basics to achieve the "no makeup" make up look. Then she dashed back downstairs, figuring she'd been gone a few seconds.

"Hello," She said, happily, sliding into his side, him thankfully taking the hint to put his arm round her shoulders as she wrapped hers round his waist. She could feel the tight muscles under his shirt. He was so aesthetically perfect it was almost boring and she thought suddenly of Loki whose striking features were truly gorgeous, like the statues from a time when men looked like Gods.

_Woah_, she thought, _where the hell had that come from?_ It wasn't like she didn't know Loki was attractive, of course he was, it was just that looking at him resulted first in thoughts of what he had done, then on his personality flaws and then on forcibly reminding herself of his merits so that she never actually arrived on the "he's fucking gorgeous" stage of analysis. And mostly he annoyed her too much to even consider this.

She shook her head, telling herself that she was only comparing him to Adam because she'd been spending so much time with him. She stretched, because he was tall and she was short, to kiss his cheek. She smiled slightly in endearment as he blushed. _Hot and adorable_, she thought.

She had managed to forget that Loki was in the living room as she went in with Adam. His eyes lifted from his book to her and then to the arm around her shoulders, the man whose arm it was and finally back to her, betraying no emotion whatsoever.

"Ah sorry," She said to him, momentarily flustered. He stood up. His eyes on her were intent though expressionless. "Uh, this is Adam."

His lip curled into an amused sneer. "I see," He walked past her, not looking at Adam.

"Be nice!" She scolded him. He smirked and left. "Jerk." She muttered.

Adam looked terrified. It was kind of amusing watching everyone be scared of Loki.

"That," He said. "Was scary."

Darcy snorted. "Loki? He's harmless."

He gave her a disbelieving look. "Harmless? He razed New York."

"Yeah but he can't do that anymore."

"Can't but not wouldn't." He pointed out.

"I don't know..." She said awkwardly, she just didn't really get a destructive vibe from Loki. He was looking at her like she'd said something absurd. "Not defending him." She added hastily. "He's up to something, just not a world domination 'something.'"

He smiled at her. "You seem to know him quite well, I don't have anything to worry about do I?" He joked.

She winced and felt her features pull themselves into a look of disgust. "Loki?" She uttered. "That's disgusting, he's not even my species. There're probably laws about it."

"I don't know," He said, moving onto the sofa. Darcy sat next to him. "The guy just gives me the creeps."

Darcy snickered. "The creeps?"

Adam smiled slightly, a self conscious grin that made her want to kiss him there and then. "You know what I mean. Don't you get scared he'll murder you in your sleep?"

"Nah, I think he's terrified of getting the hulk treatment again." She felt a slight stirring of guilt at mocking Loki when he wasn't there, even if it was a joke. She had a thing about not bitching about her friends and given that Loki was practically a roommate she supposed the rule had now extended itself to him.

"Fair enough, I didn't come here to talk about him." He said, then looked at the ceiling with fake terror. "I'm just going to try to forget that he's here."

"Yeah well it's Jane you need to worry about," Darcy joked. "If we're so loud that she can't do science...well I think I'd rather take the hulk."

He laughed. "I've seen Fury without his morning coffee, I think I can handle her."

"You see Fury a lot?" She asked, bringing her legs up on the sofa so that her feet grazed his hip. It was kind of nice to be this comfortable near someone. Jane was barely ever around anymore and with Loki there was always that hyper awareness of herself. With that came a mental reminder to email her friends from college because only being around Jane and Loki was really not going to do wonders for her mental health.

"Not really." He replied with a shrug. "I mean he rarely stays in one base for over a week and we're not exactly the most crucial department." He said it with nonchalance but there was a slight sparkle in his blue eyes when he spoke about work. The same kind Jane got talking about physics. And that Izzy used to-

She stopped herself, attempting to push that thought away. She had successfully managed to avoid thinking about her for a while and she wasn't going to start again now.

"How is work?" She blurted before she started crying, she could feel the pressure building inside her chest like she'd explode. She needed air.

She forced herself to focus on the rhythm of Adam's words and breathe slowly. "Kind of busy lately," He shrugged. "The Rising Tide keep trying to leak information, it's all we can do to track it down and stop it. I don't know how they're getting it."

His words were a raft and she was drowning. "The Rising Tide?" She asked, clinging to the fragmented words.

"This conspiracy group." He explained. "It just doesn't stop, they're relentless."

"Like the tide?" She suggested, feeling her heart beat slow.

"Exactly." He said bitterly.

"What do they want?" She asked.

He shrugged. "Something about them hating us keeping secrets. They want to release it all to the public."

"Secrets? Isn't that what the S in SHIELD stands for?" She joked.

"It may as well," He sighed. "They're a nightmare."

"Wait so they're like, an actual serious threat? Not just some group that will be gone in like, two seconds?" She asked, suddenly wary.

"I wish." He said. "They're pretty big and rather successful."

"And all information they get, they release to the public?" She asked.

"Well yeah, it's like the whole Iron Man thing. We were blocking the transmission of that footage, we had a team ready to go in and wipe the memory of the press but the computers blacked out. By the time we got them back up, the news was out. Tony Stark's 'I am Iron Man' was everywhere." He said.

"So hidden information like the real person who caused the Battle of New York...and that person's location..." She trailed off.

Adam's eyes widened in understanding. "Oh god no. I mean. Oh no, even they wouldn't...look that information is really secure..."

"You don't sound very confident." She said half nervously, half with amusement to calm him down while her own heart raced again.

"If they released that..." He ran his hand through his hair and she felt a stir of annoyance. Couldn't he leave his damn hair alone? Then he swallowed. "I mean, it would be okay for you, they'd just have to move Loki into hiding."

She shrugged. "True." She murmured while inside she was panicking. If this Rising Tide group got that information she'd have to go into hiding with Loki. Every single person on the planet would be after Loki's head. And if they found out that an easier way to kill him would be to kill her...She pushed the thought away. There was no point dwelling on what ifs. Though she still couldn't shake the feeling of panic that was clawing at her throat.

She reached her hand out and took his. It was sort of clammy but she didn't care, she just needed to know that he was real and warm and she wasn't alone.

He grinned at her and she crawled over to him so that she was nestled back under his arm with her head on his chest. He seemed kind of tense at first but more in a "I don't do this a lot" kind of way rather than Loki's "Please don't do this again or I'll be forced to kill you" way.

At least Loki would understand why she was suddenly so scared.

And if Loki were here she wouldn't be. She'd be angry at him for putting her in this situation.

"So how are you?" Adam asked, utterly unaware of how much she wanted to laugh at that question.

"Oh you know," She said, kind of shakily. He didn't seem to realise anything was wrong. Even Loki was more perceptive of emotions. "I could be worse, given that I'm living with an insane mass murderer." This time it felt good to insult him, given what his presence meant for her. Sh was suddenly very aware of just how much danger she was in living with him and, yeah, she was scared.

"Well I knew Jane liked science but..." He joked nervously. She smiled slightly, something about his nervousness stopped her from relaxing.

"Have you always been this funny?" She asked him, expecting an arrogant reply back.

"Maybe?" He suggested awkwardly. She grinned at herself, glad that she'd managed to find someone who didn't act like Jane or Loki. She really needed a break from that insanity.

_Then why won't you stop thinking about them?_ A voice in her head asked.

_Shut up._ She told it, inhaling Adam's smell of cologne. It was a little overpowering, like he hadn't been out in a while and had forgotten how much to use but comforting nonetheless, like the guys she knew in college who used to bathe in it night and day. Being with him was like being back on the sofa in her dorm watching Lord of the Rings marathons. But then she thought of her last lord of the rings marathon and that had been kind of nice and- no. She stopped herself. _Stop thinking about all this stuff_, she thought, God, couldn't she just relax for five minutes without her stupid thoughts interrupting?

She looked at him, trying to focus on what was real. It was a trick she'd learnt a while back, to focus on the tiniest details like the way the thread holding the buttons onto his jacket was fraying or the one strand of his hair which seemed to flick in a different direction to the rest. All she could really think was how attractive he was.

"How come you're single if you're so hot?" She blurted before realising that was probably too direct for most people. Then again she wasn't exactly known for her discreteness.

"Um-" He said uncertainly.

"That was rude, wasn't it?" She asked, biting her lip and wondering if anyone else could make people feel so uncomfortable. "No wait, it was a compliment. So answer."

He laughed nervously. "Well unsurprisingly girls don't really care for guys who'd rather play video games than go to parties in high school. As soon as I left high school I was snatched by SHIELD so no real dating opportunities there."

"And then I come in and you hear angels sing and it's like every prayer and wish of yours has suddenly been answered? Yeah, I get that a lot." She joked receiving only a smile in reply. "So where were you living before SHIELD hired you?" She asked to cover the silence, the words feeling uncomfortably large on her tongue, she just wasn't used to being so formal.

"Indiana." He answered. "I guess I'm pretty far away."

"You get homesick?" She asked, picking at her nails absent-mindedly.

"Not really," He replied. "I miss my sisters and mom. That's about it. Not many memories surrounding the place, you know? I only really _existed_ there."

"And your dad?" She asked, interested. She loved learning things about people. It was like every fact you learnt about someone was a puzzle piece and the more you learnt the more you could see of them.

He shrugged. "Parents divorced when I was young. Didn't see him again." He said it like it was no big deal and she believed that it wasn't. He didn't care. How nice for someone to not have daddy issues, she thought absently.

"What about you?" He asked. "I feel like we're only talking about me."

"Believe me, I'm boring." She said quickly. "I'd rather know more about you. Favourite book?"

"I don't read." He replied. "And come on, tell me about your family."

"I have a better idea," She said, grazing his thigh gently with her hand and tilting her head to look up at him. His eyes widened in understanding and slight, unsurprisingly, nervousness. He went to run his hand through his hair and she knocked it away, reaching up to kiss him while wondering why. He. Could. Not. Leave. His. Hair. Alone?!

His lips moved clumsily with lack of practice, mirroring her movements as though uncertain of their own. She'd had better kisses when she was thirteen. She pressed her lips to his more forcefully so that he fell back, almost lying on the sofa. Her hands went round the back of his neck, tickling the hair on the back of his head.

His hands found her hips, her jumper riding up so that he was touching her bare skin and she felt nothing. She moved so that her legs were straddling him and the kiss lengthened, becoming more intimate.

Still nothing.

Well, nothing from her at least. Adam however, judging from the pressure on her leg, was definitely aroused.

She pulled away. Her options, as she considered them were physical distraction in the form of Adam or being trapped by her thoughts. She pulled his hand with a mischievous grin and dragged him stumbling to her bedroom.

"I'll be two seconds." She whispered in his ear as he entered. She walked over to the electricity cupboard. She couldn't see a camera but she knew that SHIELD would have some way of hearing. She'd stumbled across the right wires a week ago. She was quite good with electronics, one of the reasons she'd been able to hack SHIELD and she'd recognised the wires immediately.

"I'm cutting the wires for my room." She said. "I think you know what's going on and I am certainly not letting you watch it."

She yanked the corresponding wires out of their sockets. She rushed back to Adam before her thoughts could catch up with her.

They spooned for a while once they were done but eventually Adam whispered that he had to go so they got dressed and she walked him to the door.

"I'll see you soon." He said, kissing the top of her head. She nodded blindly.

She shut the door behind him and leant back against it. She really liked Adam, she had for months but she'd never had a date so bad before. It was partly her fault she supposed, for thinking of all that...stuff. And she might not be a horny teenager anymore but she was fairly certain when a guy so far off the attractiveness scale kisses you, you're supposed to do more than endure it. The sex wasn't bad exactly, she'd had worse but...well it wasn't winning him any favours with her.

"Forgive me if I'm wrong," Said a snide voice from the top of the stairs. She opened her eyes and snapped her head up to face him. "But I'm fairly certain that's not the correct response to...an engagement."

She rolled her eyes. "Have you been stuck in your bat cave all this time."

He glared at her. "I believe you were busy in there, I'm really not the sort to watch. Though wait until we get the connection to Asgard working, my brother will be more than happy."

She pulled a face but she was too disappointed with her night with Adam to be convincing. "You're disgusting." She was about to ask if that was why Odin disowned him but changed her mind. They were only joking, that topic kind of surpassed that. "You finish the book?"

She asked as he reached the bottom of the stairs and they went into the living room. "Yes." He replied.

"What did you think?"

"It was better." He said, not sitting down but leaning against the wall.

"Better?" She asked astounded, walking past him and into the kitchen. To her surprise, he followed. "Better than The Lord of the Rings?"

"Yes." He replied in the same matter-of-fact tone.

"Explain, Frost Brain." She demanded, poking him lightly on his leather clad arm and walking over to the fridge. She saw insulting her favourite books as an offense on herself.

"It was more...informative." He said slowly.

She opened the door and pulled out the half empty bottle of wine. "Informative?" She asked giving him her best disbelieving look. "It's fiction."  
He shrugged. She rolled her eyes again, figuring that it wasn't worth explaining things like that to an Asgardian. She still remembered Jane telling Thor about the TV.

"Wine?" She asked him, pulling him a glass out anyway.

"Wine?" He repeated. She had her back to him as she poured it out and suddenly wondered when she became so relaxed around him that she could be in a room without keeping an eye on him. Even in the lab her eyes followed him occasionally. The revelation made her hand jerk with the wine so that it almost spilt when she poured it.

"It's a drink, genius." She said, filling the glasses generously.

"I know what it is." He snapped. "I'm questioning why you are getting it out at this time of night."

"Because I just had an awful date with my kind of sort of boyfriend and it is Friday night and I am under house arrest thanks to a certain Asgardian and his certain magic spell and I have not been out in far too long and Jane is too busy sciencing to do anything so I want to have some expensive wine but because SHIELD don't pay me enough I'm going to settle for this." She said rapidly, pushing a glass at him. "So drink it."

He took the glass and looked at it with his usual scepticism. "It astounds me that you still believe I care about your mortal problems." He said. Normal Loki was back then.

"Well you asked." She pointed out and raised her own to her lips, taking nervous sips despite wishing to take long gulps. She winced at the bitter taste. "God that's nasty." But she smiled slightly anyway, once again being reminded of when this wine was seen as a luxury. She was truly feeling the effects of graduating a year early. She'd missed out on a whole year of college parties to spend time in labs.

He looked at it like it had insulted him before he drank any. "Well it's possibly the worst wine I've ever had but given that I haven't had it in years, I'll take it."

"No wine in prison?" She joked.

"Of course not, only mead." He replied with a smirk. "For the hardened criminal."

"I have to admit," She said with a smile. "The idea of you surrounded by thugs is kind of hilarious."

"Yes well I'm sure they all thought so." He ran his finger absent-mindedly around the rim of his glass. He had nice hands, she thought, long and elegant.

She glanced up at him and saw him watching her intently. She suddenly realised how close she was standing to him and took a hasty step back so that she was leant against the counter opposite him. "When are you going to talk about what happened there?" She asked sincerely, she could see it killing him. She didn't want to keep bringing it up but every glance at him was answered with his pain. She supposed it was the scar across his eye though she knew it wasn't.

"I had no plans to." He answered calmly, taking another sip of wine. His green eyes were surprisingly intent upon her. Or maybe she was just slightly more aware of them than normal.

"You shouldn't keep stuff like that to yourself." She said.

"First you tell me to get over it and now you want me to talk about it?" He asked with a smirk.

"Yeah well at first you were a jerk, I didn't want to know. But now...well you're still a jerk but you're my...well problem so yeah."

"So articulate." He mocked.

"Yeah well that's me." She raised her glass and drank. "Not all of us can speak Shakespeare."

"Who?" He asked.

"Nevermind." Darcy muttered. "Wow, I forget how little you know."

He raised an eyebrow. "Some of us were a little too busy defending the nine realms to pay attention to Midgard."

"You?" She asked. "_Defending _the nine realms?"

He didn't answer, lost in thought as he continued to spin his finger round the glass. His smile was gone and she sensed a sudden coldness. She felt a stir of annoyance. Why did he always do this? Sooner or later he'd turn cold and stop responding. It was like he couldn't quite decide how he wanted to behave. She figured he'd spent so long acting he didn't quite know what to do with himself.

That or this was all a huge act while he worked on some grand scale plan for world domination.

The thought of the latter was enough to remind her of what he'd really done. Battle of New York. She reminded herself, true she forgave him for that but that didn't change the fact that his personality, him, him without being under SHIELD's control was a raging lunatic. That's who he really was. She was so sick of these stupid guys and their stupid pretences.

"I'm going to bed."She said, drinking the last of her wine. He didn't even look up.

* * *

Chapter title from The Summer Set's The Boys You Do (Get Back At You). Bit of a long chapter, not the best but necessary and sorry sick Loki had to go, I'm sure I can drag a bit of his personality back soon. Thanks for reading and the reviews.


	10. Chapter 10: Somewhere In The Smoke

"You want to do what?" Matt asked, his voice rising in disbelief.

Darcy put her hands stubbornly on her hips and glared at him. "I want to learn self defence." She repeated.

Matt's eyebrows rose so that they were underneath his curly black hair. "Darcy, you're like five foot."

"Five foot four." She corrected quickly. "And your point?"

"My point is that you're not exactly intimidating." He said. She narrowed her blue eyes at him.

"I'm asking you to teach me how to defend myself, not how to attack." She said.

"But you barely passed the mandatory class." He pointed out. SHIELD made them take a basic class in martial arts when they first joint. Darcy and Jane had passed only because they desperately needed Jane's research. "And you have a taser!"

She crossed her arms. "Look, if you don't want to teach me, I'll find someone else to."

He looked round. They were in the hall outside Jane's lab. No one else was in the hallway, they barely bothered to guard Loki much anymore, just the guard at the end of the hall who in this case was Matt.

Nonetheless, he reached his hand out and guided her by the elbow to the side of the wall. "Why do you want to do this?" He said, his voice lowered.

"I just want to know." She said.

"Bullshit." He replied bluntly. "You hate exercise. You only went running to pass the fitness tests. What aren't you telling me?"

She looked round and caught Loki's eye for a second before he looked away, pretending like he hadn't been watching. She almost rolled her eyes. For a god of lies he really wasn't the most subtle.

"I had a date with Adam on Friday and-"

"What he tried to...?" Matt started, so furious he could barely get words out.

"No!" Darcy said, realising what he was suggesting. "No! Nothing like that, it's Adam for Christ's sake."

Matt crossed his arms annoyed and glowered at her expectantly. After dealing with Loki's glares, Matt's just seemed kind of cute.

"Well anyway," She said in the same hushed whisper. "He mentioned something about this group...the rising ocean or something."

"The Rising Tide?" He asked.

"Yeah them. Anyway apparently they've been releasing loads of information and I figured if they got hold of the stuff about Loki then I might...well defence lessons suddenly seemed important."

He scratched the back of his neck. "Darcy..." He sighed. "Look, I agree if it gets out it'll be bad but I can hardly turn you into the Black Widow."

"I'm not asking you to." She hissed.

"Fine." He relented at last. "But if we're doing this, we're doing it properly."

"Yay, thank you." She said with a grin, leaning up to peck him on the cheek.

"I mean it, Darce." He said, holding her shoulders firmly to keep her from jumping up and down. "You turn up to every practice and you try."

"That's fine." She said, smiling.

"And I don't know what you're going to do with your little Asgardian pet who, by the way, has not stopped glaring at me for our entire conversation." He said, quickly glancing over her shoulder at him. "Bring him along, I really don't care but he has to behave."

She raised her eyebrows at him, impressed. "I think you're the first person who isn't scared of him."

"Oh I'm terrified." He said seriously. "But I figure I have to at least be braver than Dan. He hasn't got within three feet of him."

Darcy laughed. "Yeah well Dan's a bigger Jerk than Loki is. And don't worry, the latter I can handle. He'll be on his best behaviour."

"I wish I could see how you plan on making him do that." Matt said with a slight grin, making him look even more pixie like than normal. "See you tomorrow. Don't be late."

"I won't." She replied, turning her back on him and returning to the lab.

Jane glanced up as she entered before returning back to tapping on the computer. Loki ignored her, the hypocritical idiot.

"Yo jerkface." She called to him. He looked up curiously, like he hadn't just been watching her like some crazed stalker.

"Jerkface?" Jane repeated from the other side of the room.

"Yeah, not my best." Darcy conceded without looking away from Loki who was looking at her with polite curiosity with just a hint of annoyance. Damn he was a good actor, even she was questioning whether he'd heard.

"Anyway," She continued, arms crossed. Jane was watching them still. "We're staying late tomorrow, my friend is teaching me how to fight so you have to come too. If you act like...well yourself, then I will hide my books."

He raised his eyebrows and leant back in the chair, clearly unimpressed. "Hiding books? Really? God of mischief, I think I might be able to find them."

"I'll lock them away."

"I can do magic."

"Fury will whoop your ass."

"For something such as books? I doubt it." He replied.

"Look, do you agree or not?" She asked, annoyed.

"Of course, I think it's a great idea." He answered. She stared at him astounded.

"W-w-" She stuttered and swallowed before glaring at him. "Then what the hell was all that for?" She asked and poked him angrily in the chest, not giving a damn about any of his injuries, in fact hoping it probably caused him to hurt.

He shrugged. "Your threats were abysmal."

Her mouth gaped slightly. "You're impossible." She muttered, shaking her head.

"Uh..." Jane said awkwardly from the corner. "If you two are done...whatever...can you get back to work?"

Loki raised an eyebrow at her challengingly. He'd do the work, obviously, but he liked to make Jane work for it.

"Please," She added, begging. Darcy wondered if she'd brushed her hair this morning. She swore the girl had two modes _SCIENCE!_ and _THOR!11!_ everything else was an afterthought, determined by whether or not it was necessary for the science or Thor obsessing.

"Darcy, can you email Banner? I need those notes on nuclear..." Darcy stopped listening, it wasn't going to make any sense to her.

"Yes ma'am." She replied jokingly and hurried to the computer.

They were in a practice room in the SHIELD compound. It was relatively small but empty giving Matt plenty of space to teach her and her plenty of room to mess it up. Loki was leaning in the corner with a smirk etched onto his stupid face. As if she didn't already know just how much she was going to fail this.

"Okay," Matt started. "well I've been thinking it over and you're no fighter."

"Thanks, Matt." She replied, arms crossed.

"Oh shut up, you know it's true." He said, seriously. "If you're ever in a fight or flight situation, you run. You get the hell out of there, okay?"

She nodded. She wasn't a bad runner. She wasn't particularly good either but she could see herself running a lot easier than she could see herself, say, in the middle of a fight.

"All right so I figured we'd work on that plan."

"What, you want me running laps?" She asked.

"I'd be able to tell you what I want you doing if you stopped interrupting me." He pointed out with a slight smile.

"I don't like you when you're all teachery." She scowled.

"Well then perhaps you should have asked someone else to teach you." He retorted. "And to answer your previous question, no, I'm not going to make you do laps but if you were serious about being ready in case you're attacked then you should probably start running again."

"I never stopped." She replied.

"When was the last time you went running?" He asked sceptically, his cocked eyebrow clearly saying that he already knew the answer.

"Pre major life drama." She replied.

"Exactly. Now unless that spell of yours is somehow stopping you getting on the treadmill, and I know you have one, I suggest you hop back on it." He said.

"Rude."

"_Anyway_," She could tell he was regretting the decision to teach her more with every second. "I figured if we're going with the assumption that you will run, we'd cover some moves to make you able to run if something is stopping you. So say someone grabs your wrist." He said, grabbing her wrist. "What would you do?"

"Umm, kick him in the balls?" She suggested.

"Yeah, I'm sure that's going to work on the Black Widow and The Cavalry and Maria Hill and-"

"Okay okay," She interrupted. "I get it. No balls."

"Right so what are you going to do?"

She was getting frustrated for some reason. She could see Loki's bored gaze on her. Somehow the lack of a smirk made him even more annoying. "Uh taser you?"

"Right but I've got your hand. You wouldn't have time to reach for your taser before I could flip you or whatever. You have to be ready to instinctually get me off." He said.

"Fine," She said, aggravated. "How am I supposed to do that then?"

"The weak point in my grip is where my thumb touches my finger. So aim for there. Jus t yank your arm really quickly down or to the side or wherever that gap is." He said.

She looked at his hand. His fingers met his thumb at the top so she just had to pull upwards.

She bent her arm, wrenching her arm free of his grip. However she had more momentum than she'd thought and ended up slapping herself in the face.

Matt laughed. "Right, I guess we've got some work to do."

For the next hour he taught her how to get free of various grips and holds. At the end, when he grabbed her round the waist from behind and she managed to twist him onto the floor, he grinned.

"Right, well you did surprisingly well given that you're...well you." He said, impish grin back on his face.

"Yeah well you were a surprisingly good teacher given that you're...well you." She mocked back.

"Yes well don't get too cocky." He told her. "We've got to practice so that you do that quicker and without thinking it through. Same time next week?"

"Yep." She said. He left through the door and she turned to Loki. "Wait here." She said, while she changed next door out of her sweaty gym clothes. She didn't worry about him wandering off, it wasn't like he could and they were surrounded by empty rooms so it wasn't like he could get any weapons or anything either.

When she emerged wearing her usual jumper, jeans and beanie ensemble he was leaning against the wall, exactly where she'd left him.

"Soo," She sang walking up to him, a giddy smile on her face. "What did you think?"

He raised an eyebrow. "That you lack spatial awareness skills."

"I do not!" She protested.

"You hit yourself in the face." He pointed out with the same bored tone.

"That was one time." She replied, holding her arm out. "Look, grab my wrist."

He rolled his eyes and lightly gripped her arm. Even through the fabric of her jumper she was aware of the change in pressure in the same way she'd be aware of a thousand bolts of electricity running through her. She pulled her arm away.

"Amazing." He said sarcastically.

"Won't be long until I can beat you up." She said with a smile and reached up to ruffle his hair playfully. He caught her arm tightly.

"Don't do that." He snapped. She pulled her arm away through the gap in his grip.

"Ha!" She told him. He gritted his teeth. "Come on, we have to collect Jane."

Jane had jumped at the opportunity to stay late at work SCIENCING!She was such a nerd.

"Wait." He said as she reached the door. She looked back startled. He never initiated conversation. Ever.

"What?" She asked, regaining her cool relatively quickly.

"About what that man said..." He started awkwardly. He even looked awkward. She felt her mouth start to gape slightly. Loki, the guy who when caught by the avengers asked for a drink, who threw Tony Stark out of a window and dropped his own brother out of a plane in a metal trap...looked nervous.

"Matt." Darcy told him. He couldn't just keep pretending all mortals were beneath him. Still, she said it softly, unable to muster her usual annoyance when she was so perturbed by his talking to her.

"Right," he said which again threw her because she was expecting a snide remark about how he couldn't care less. "About you thinking you might be attacked."

Something inside her dropped. She realised suddenly where this was going. "Yeah," she said with a tad more venom than she had intended. "Well I'll try not to, I wouldn't want to be an annoyance for you."

He looked confused for a moment. "I don't under-"" He said.

"No, I get it. You just want to protect your own back. Unfortunately for you that includes mine." She said hostilely. "Well, I'll try to make it easy for you."

"Darcy!" He snapped. "Will you let me finish?"

She narrowed her eyes at him and folded her arms, certain that the only reason she hadn't stormed away was because she was too busy fighting the shock that he'd used her name for the first time ever. To be honest, she didn't even think he knew it.

"Please," he said. Now he was saying please?! Was the world ending? "What did you mean by believing you may be attacked?"

She was about to make a sarcastic retort but she caught his eye. They were staring at her intently, nothing in them different from usual but suddenly she could read his face better. His eyes were pleading with her, masking what could only be fear.

Something in her gut twisted and she relented. "It's nothing to worry about."

"Tell me." And there was a touch of command to it.

She shrugged. "Just some of the information about us wasn't as secure as I thought. Apparently there's a group that's been trying to hack into it."

"That's all?" He asked, urgently.

"That's all." She confirmed. "Now will you tell me what's up? You're scaring me."

"Just promise me that if you hear something like this again, you will tell me." He said.

"I promise." She said. He looked relieved. "Now what's with all the dramatics?"

"It doesn't matter." He answered, reverting to his usual illusive self.

"Yeah right it doesn't! You can't just start turning all intense and dark worldly and then not tell me why!" She said to him in a slightly higher pitch than usual.

He ignored her and looked away. She bit her lip as he thought, remembering something. "When I said I was learning self defence, you said you thought it was a good idea. Why?"

He smirked, the usual grin that she wanted to slap off of his face. "So that I could stop worrying about you getting me killed by tripping over your own feet."

She could feel a blush rising to her cheeks. So there may have been a few bruises caused by her clumsiness over the past month... She shook her head, she wouldn't let him start an argument to change the subject. "Self defence wouldn't help with that, Asgardian." She reached her fist up and tapped him lightly on the head. "Or do you not have a brain up there?"

He sidestepped her easily, grabbing her arm and stepping close to her so that she could feel his breath on the top of her forehead.

"I will protect you." He said. "Do not doubt that."

She tried to think but her brain was swirling like someone had set her head on spin. It was just a reaction to any hot guy standing so close, she told herself.

However, she was after all Darcy. She opened her mouth and she could always rely on words to come out. Of course most of the time she wished they wouldn't...

"Aww that's sweet." She said jokingly. "But next time you say that you might want to make sure there's no magic connection that makes that remark incredibly selfish."

"I mean it." He said, letting her arm go. The thing was, she didn't doubt it. Loki would hardly make a comment like that as a joke. Of course he would protect her. And he would protect her almost as well as he would protect himself. It was just that he wasn't doing it because he liked her. She was little more than a meat suit harbouring a nerve ending for him. A useless extension of his body which was only ever a vulnerability, never actually desired.

His comments, other than making her feel secure and safe, made her feel more pointless than ever. They were a cruel reminder that no matter how much she convinced herself he was something like a friend, he would drop her in a heartbeat and probably murder her too if it wasn't for the magical block.

It did not matter, after all, that Loki spoke only to her in full sentences. That she alone had watched films with him or sat in comfortable silence and read with him. To him, she was at best a pet and at worst an insect, something unsavoury he wanted rid of sooner rather than later.

She felt blood rush to her cheeks and had to fight the urge to burst into tears. It was hardly the first time she'd felt more than irrelevant. After all, she'd worked with Selvig and Jane and they weren't exactly complimentary.

_So why did it hurt so much to feel like it with him?  
_

"What's wrong?" He asked, scanning her face worriedly as though the answer to his question might magically appear there.

"Nothing." She said. _Remember_, she told herself, _you are only trying to find out why he is helping Jane, no attachments or anything_. If he was using her, she would use him right back. "Come on, let's get Jane."

She turned to the door. If only she could keep sight of what was important.

* * *

Chapter title from The Gaslight Anthem's Boxer. I may have time for one more update before christmas but if not this might be the last one for a week or so. Thank you for the reviews. I feel like maybe the story may be progressing too quickly so could you let me know what you think? Thank you x


	11. Chapter 11: Just So Lucky

October was over before Darcy had finally come to recognise that it had truly begun. It extinguished itself in a torrent of rain and wind so strong that it rattled the windows of their home and made even the underground shelter of SHIELD drafty and humid.

It was one morning in the middle of November that the phone in their lab rang. The three of them looked up curiously, it was not the first time that someone had contacted them in the lab but they usually had to go through security on the computer before they were able to put them through to the phone.

"Ummm shall I get it?" Darcy asked curiously.

"No, I will." Jane said uncertainly, walking over to it. "Um hello?...what?...no way!" She was practically squealing with excitement now. Loki raised an eyebrow at Darcy and she shrugged in reply. "okay okay I'm coming." Jane finished and tapped the end call button.

"What was that?" Darcy asked.

"I've got to go." Jane said, running to the door.

"Yeah but what-" the door closed. She sighed. "Cool, thanks for explaining everything!"

Darcy shook her head in exasperation as Jane disappeared. Loki was bent back over the notes he was writing. A kind of cute quizical expression on his face. _No, not cute_, she reminded herself. She was having to remind herself quite a lot recently. She'd stopped thinking of everything Loki had done when she saw him and had started seeing only the sarcastic, arrogant guy that lived with her. She figured that could only be dangerous.

She bit her lip. She'd been waiting for an opportunity for a few days and now seemed as good a time as ever. She walked over to her handbag and pulled out the thick picture book inside.

Loki liked to work on the desk in the corner of the room but a few days ago Jane had spilt an odd mixture of chemicals there and seeming as it still smoked occasionally, Loki had taken to just spreading his work out on the middle table.

She stood in front of him for a few moments, wondering how best to go about it.

"I am sure you are employed for some reason other than to stare at me." He said without looking up from the paper.

"Yeah well at this point I'm employed to be your babysitter so it's all part of the job." She sat down in the chair opposite him. "So, listen, I've been reading this book for the past few days."

"Congratulations, I was not aware that you could read." He said, again without looking up.

"Do you have any mode other than sarcastic?" She asked. "Anyway. The book is about you."

At that he glanced up, albeit momentarily. He picked up a sheet of paper and started critically scanning it. "I see. Did you learn anything interesting?"

"Well it's funny you should ask." She said, trying to hide her smile. She pushed the open book in front of him. "It's a book on mythology and it says some stuff about you and well, I was just wondering...are you really the mother of horses?"

He looked up then from his work, eyebrow raised. "Excuse me?" He asked, affronted.

"Because look," She said, raising her hands in surrender. "whatever you choose to do is cool with me but like, dude, I used to love ponies and well, some things are better kept to ourselves. Self control, you might want to get some."

He raised his hand to his temples and started rubbing them.

She was properly giggling now. "So I guess what I'm saying is: Did you really fuck a horse?"

He gave her a look of pure loathing. "No I did not have sexual intercourse with a horse." He said as though the answer were obvious. Then again she supposed it ought to have been. He sighed. "Mother-of-horses used to be a generic insult on Asgard," He explained. "The same way your Fury says...what is it? Uh..."

"Son of a bitch?" She suggested. "Motherfucker?"

"Yes yes," He said hurriedly, "Either of those. Well one time when we were on Midgard I prevented a war from starting and Volstagg who had been looking forward to it called me it. I suppose a Midgardian heard and decided to spread the tale." He looked at her in annoyance. "Midgardians do believe whatever they are told, I hear."

"Yeah yeah, save it, horse-fucker." She joked.

He rolled his eyes. "Why ask for the tale if you do not care for the truth?"

"Because the lie is so much funnier." She answered. "One sec." She said, pulling her phone out. He returned to his work.

"Okay, once and for all. Did you give birth to a six legged horse?"

He looked up agitated. "I have told you-" Darcy pressed the button on her phone and the flash went off, startling him.

"Got it!" She said gleefully. "Sorry but I needed a photographic reminder of this delightful conversation."

He inhaled slowly. "Mortals." He said as though it were a huge insult.

"Why do you call us that, anyway?" She asked, smiling down at the picture of Loki's offended glare on her phone and thinking what a shame it was that she couldn't post that one on facebook. If her one of Thor got eighty likes, she could only imagine how many Loki would get. "Thor told me you die too."

"A slight difference of around five thousand years." He answered, annoyed.

"God, you're grouchy today." She said. "What do I have to do to make you happy?"

"Leave?" He suggested.

"Woah. De ja vu. You've only said that one like a gazillion times." She said.

"And still you do not understand."

"Yeah well look how cute you are." She said, waving her phone at him. "Do you practice glaring in the mirror because you really convey your hatred well."

"You know," He said calmly. "There is a race of elves on Alfheim who are famed for playing petty tricks on the villagers. Even they are not as annoying as you are."

"I feel like I'm supposed to be offended but I'm not the one that gave birth to a horse." She said, a hint of humour in her voice. "What about the other stuff? It says you're married. Who's Sigyn?"

"Who?" He asked, looking up from his work the way he sometimes did when reading, with a look that clearly said he was busy and didn't want to talk. _Oh well_, Darcy thought, she was having too much fun to stop.

"Uh here." She said, turning the page and reading. "_'In both the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, the goddess Skaði is responsible for placing a serpent above him'_ uh that's you. '_while he is bound. The serpent drips venom from above him that Sigyn collects into a bowl; however, she must empty the bowl when it is full, and the venom that drips in the meantime causes Loki to writhe in pain, thereby causing earthquakes_.' Okay so horses and bondage. Any other kinks I should know about?"

Loki shook his head in exasperation. "Even your mortals' imaginations are pathetic."

"So it's not true?" Darcy found herself kind of happy for some reason. She knew the horse thing wasn't real but she thought perhaps the Sigyn stuff might be.

Not that it would have changed anything.

"Obviously not." He answered.

"What do you mean, 'obviously'?" She asked.

He smirked at her. "Do you not think if I had a wife she might be searching for me?"

"Well you've not exactly done things that make you perfect husband material." She pointed out. Loki rolled his eyes and deigned not to reply.

"I take it you never looked like that as a teenager either then?" She asked, pointing to the picture of the goblin like creature on the page. "I mean puberty can be tough but I doubt anyone as cut as you are could ever have looked like that." She realised what she'd just said and blushed furiously. How hard was it to just keep her mouth shut?

Luckily Loki was still writing and didn't look up. "Apparently crude portraits are all the human skill is able to produce." He said.

She scowled at him. "You insult species an awful lot-" for someone who is ashamed of his, she had been about to say but just thinking the words gave her a guilty kick to the stomach. She would happily say a lot of things to him but that was kind of below the belt.

"You are insufferable." He told her, drawing an effortless straight line across the page to connect two points. She liked watching him work, it was kind of pen porn compared to Jane's scrawls and her own messy loops.

"I try." She said happily. At that she heard the door open and looked over to see Jane walking back in. But she wasn't alone.

"Banner?" Darcy asked shocked. She'd never met the guy but they'd conversed a few times in emails.

"Miss Lewis." He nodded politely before his eyes fell on Loki. She looked at him too. He'd stopped working and was looking up with the expression of vacant boredom that filled his face when he was surprised or curious. "Ah," Banner said. "They told me you'd be here. I have to say I didn't really believe them."

Loki said nothing.

"Now we haven't really met. I mean, I heard the other guy did." Banner continued.

Loki smirked. "You still pretend that you and the creature are separate?"

Banner smiled slightly. "Well last time I checked I was definitely not a green monster."

Loki leant back in his chair. Darcy bit back a smile. He was a dick but he was a funny one. Plus it was nice to hear him insulting someone else. "You may pretend that he is not part of you but that excuses the horrors? You think that you are not still responsible for everyone that monster has killed? No. I think not. I see how it haunts you. No matter how much you joke you still picture the scenes and you know that you are the one responsible. You will never escape that. You can try to convince yourself otherwise but you are just as much a part of that thing as it is of you."

"Loki!" Jane said. "Enough."

Loki grinned even more. "Oh but it is the truth."

"Cute." Dr Banner said, utterly unperturbed. "But I think if that's true then I am the one that slammed you into the floor of Stark towers. You know that's the only bit Stark didn't fix? He practically framed it, maybe you can see it one day."

Loki snorted softly. Darcy kicked him under the table and gave him a "too far" glare. To her surprise he stopped.

"Now," Banner said, turning to Jane. "You think nuclear fusion might aid the portal?"

"No," Jane replied, pulling over notes. "I think it might be a part of it. You see when I add-"

She cut off at a knock from the door.

Matt was there, opening it at Jane's nod. "Oh uh," He said as he saw Banner. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.

"Don't worry," Jane said. "What is it?"

"Oh well," He looked at Darcy. "I just thought I'd let you know there's a room on the eleventh floor free if you wanted to practice there."

"Now?" She asked, her mouth gaping open. Floor eleven meant weapons. She was trying to hide her excitement.

"Well yeah." Matt said.

"Cool, come on." She said to Loki.

He looked up at her coldly. "I'm busy."

"Nu uh. Come on, I'm going and so you have to."

"I don't have to do anything." Loki said.

"Fine, stay here. Excruciating pain when I leave and of course I'm sure you and Banner can practice your fighting skills." She pointed out.

He sighed and stood up. "You are ridiculous." He stated.

"Yeah, you've said." She said happily, looping her arm through his. He winced as she did so, out of more disgust than pain. The prod of pain she felt was a reminder that he really didn't like her. She kept having to remind herself of that. She was normally a pretty good judge of character but Loki didn't play by any of the usual rules given that, well, he hated everyone.

Matt led them down to floor eleven in silence as she nattered meaningless drivel to Loki that even she couldn't remember afterwards. She had bad enough verbal diarrhea as it was but silences with Loki fluctuated between being natural and comfortable and cringeworthy and painful.

Dan was on guard duty on the floor and stopped them.

"Are you insane?" He asked Matt. "You can't take...him down here!"

Matt sighed. "I've been in a room with him armed. Don't you think if he wanted weapons he could have got them by now?"

Darcy felt a rush of relief towards him for standing up for Loki. He hadn't exchanged more than a terse nod at the start of each session with him but here he was, pointing out to Dan what ought to have been obvious.

"That doesn't mean you can show him them." Dan said. "He might not have wanted them before but if he sees them-"

"Whilst I'm sure the Norse God is likely to be so awed by our impressive mortal array, given that he saw better last year, I'm sure you are more than competent enough to stop him." Matt said. Darcy grinned. Now Dan either had to admit that he wouldn't be able to stop him or let them through. Any sane guard would have replied with "are you crazy? Of course I wouldn't be able to stop him!" Dan's pride was far too big.

He looked at the three of them, from Darcy who was grinning to Matt and his fake innocent expression and finally to Loki who didn't even look like he was paying attention. Dan's eyes lingered for a moment on Darcy's arm entwined with Loki's before he nodded at them.

"Fine." He said.

"Oh you so did that on purpose." Darcy whispered to Matt as they walked down the hall. Unlike most in the SHIELD compound, the walls were metal rather than glass.

"I may have known he was on guard." Matt said, a sparkle in his mischievous eyes.

Darcy laughed. She was practically leaning on Loki now due to their considerable height difference. He hadn't pushed her off yet though so that was a plus.  
They stopped about halfway down the hall and Matt had to input some security passwords into a small tablet by the wall.

"Uh you cleared this with Agent Hill, right?" She asked. Given that Fury went everywhere, Hill was their official commander except for when Fury was in the compound.

"Yeah, you know how she is. The more training someone has the better so she was all for this."

The 'this' in question was a large room made of the same ridged metal that made up the hallway. Brackets along the far wall held a dozen different types of guns, crossbows and other weapons that she couldn't identify. She saw Loki looking at them, a hungry gleam in his eye though nothing else had changed.

He caught her looking and raised a nonchalant eyebrow. "No touching." She said jabbing a finger at him.

"You severely overestimate my respect for your weapons." He said in his usual sarcastic voice.

"Okay," Matt said, walking over to her before she could retort. "We won't have long so let's get started."

"Cool, what do I get?" She asked, eyeing the wicked looking weapons on the wall. She was rather attached to her taser but she was more than willing to trade up.

"Let's start with this." He said, picking up a rather pathetic looking pistol in comparison to the other stuff on offer.

It was a gun at least. "Cool, gimme." She said holding her hands out and grinning.

"Oh hell no," Matt said. "Not like that."

"Gim-me." She said, enunciating each syllable.

"Darcy," He said sternly. "We are surrounded by more weapons than you've ever seen in your life so can you please act like an adult for once."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "If you give me the gun."

Loki snorted. She threw him a quick glare.

"I'm trying to teach you how to do it properly." Matt said. He curled his fingers round it. "This is how you hold it, notice my finger is not actually on the trigger. Think you can try?"

She rolled her eyes but nodded. He gave it to her with an expression like he was handing a bomb to a child. He was waiting for it to explode.

The gun felt warm in her hand. Not really how she'd expected a gun to feel. It could kill. It ought to have felt cold and menacing and alien to her. Instead the grip and weighting made it feel like an extension of her hand that even someone as clumsy as her couldn't mess up. And most of all it made her feel powerful and she knew that that was wrong but she also knew that she was really enjoying it.

"That's..that's not bad actually." Matt said, appraising her.

"It's not exactly hard." She replied curtly.

"You'd be surprised." He answered. "Right um, the targets on the wall. I want you to aim for the middle one, see the barrel, you form a straight line leading to the target with that. And then you squeeze the trigger gently. The gun will kick back so you have to keep it steady."

She nodded and raised the gun. "Now?" She asked.

"Yeah." He said, with a voice so low it felt like he was just waiting for something to go wrong. "Just remember to turn the safety off."

She clicked the little switch and squinted slightly at the target. From the corner of her eye she could just see Loki watching her curiously. She squirmed slightly, she'd be bad enough without the added pressure.

"Okay," She breathed. She lifted the gun and aimed it at the target. She pulled the trigger as she inhaled. The gun slammed backwards, throwing her off balance as her bullet went flying into a metal corner and ricocheted off.

"Holy shit!" She had time to yell as Matt pulled her down to the ground. She gasped as she hit it, his arm coming up to covering her head. She heard the bullet clatter away and the hand let her go only when she looked up, Matt was lying opposite her, meaning the one who had pulled her down was Loki.

He was watching her now, the arm that had covered her head gone but his other still holding onto her arm.

"Are you all right?" He asked sincerely, the worry in his voice surprising her.

"That was..." She started shakily. "The most stupid design for a room ever!" She yelled, regaining her composure quickly. "Who the fuck designs a room to fire bullets that'll reflect them?"

"In their defence," Matt said climbing to his feet. "They probably weren't expecting someone as uncoordinated as you."

Loki helped her up, still looking at her with concern. "I'm fine." She hissed at him. She hated being looked at like a wounded puppy.

"I don't think someone with your co ordination could be classed even by the loosest definition of the word as 'fine.'" He stated in his modulated voice. Matt laughed. He had a surprisingly low but breathy laugh. He stopped himself looking shocked and looked at Loki appraisingly. She supposed it was the first time he'd seen Loki with...well a personality.

She was suddenly very aware of how bad that personality was.

Unfortunately, sarcastic dicks weren't appreciated by most people.

Not that she appreciated it but... she forced herself to focus on the gun.

"Okay okay, if you two are done. Jesus, you should be a double act. How am I supposed to fire a gun?"

"I think it would be best for everyone if you just didn't." Matt said grinning. Loki was kind of smiling too. Dear lord, if she had known they'd get along...

"You really want to taunt a girl with a gun?" She asked.

"If you're firing it I think we're fine." Loki said with a smirk. She hit his arm, a lot harder than she normally would but seeing as she didn't feel anything she assumed he didn't either. Stupid God.

"Honestly Darcy..." Matt said seriously and rather uncomfortably. "I don't quite know what to...I've never really taught anyone before and someone so...unique..." He trailed off a Loki moved over to her.

He stepped behind her and put his arms round her. She jumped about a foot. "Hey keep your hands to yourself!" She said. Instead his right clasped around hers and his left guided her other hand to the gun as well so that she was holding it in both hands.

His arms were around her. She was very aware of them.

"Allow me." He said, his breath tickling her ear and sending goosebumps racing down her back and setting her heart on accelerate. He raised her arms and lowered his head so that it was level with hers to focus her aim. "You need to aim higher to make up for your lack of height." He said.

"Huh?" She asked. She was certain that was an insult but the smell of his soap and leather and something vaguely minty was intoxicating, sending her mind spinning.

"Concentrate." He told her, sternly but with amusement.

"Right." She said, suddenly unable to say more than one word answers. Very unlike her. His hands were surprisingly soft.

"Do you find something about this distracting?" He practically purred in her ear, the humour in his voice saying he already knew damn well the answer. His taunting snapped her out of her daze.

"Absolutely not." She answered straightening up in his arms and gripped the gun a little tighter.

She pulled the trigger. This time the bullet went flying into the target, only just missing the bullseye.

Loki let his arms drop and she span round to face him, grinning.

"Great," Matt said. "So you'll be able to fire a gun if you have a Norse God handy."

"I like to think if I have a Norse God handy then I won't have to revert to firing a gun." She told him.

Matt shook his head. "Just try again."

* * *

Chapter title from The Main's Everything I ask For. Merry Christmas everyone, hopefully I'll be able to update again before New Year. Thanks for the reviews and just generally reading this thing.


	12. Chapter 12: A Little Truth

Loki went straight to his room when they got home. Darcy felt strangely lonely with him gone despite the fact that she ought to have been used to that by now, he was spending more time alone.

"I can't believe Bruce came!" Jane squealed the moment they got in, collapsing onto the sofa.

"Oh so he's 'Bruce' now?" Darcy asked.

"He was telling me loads of stories about Thor when he visited."

"And when he didn't visit you."

"And he had some really interesting insights into the research."

"What's for dinner?"

"He thinks there is definitely a nuclear element involved."

"I am invisible."

"And he's staying for a few weeks to work on it!" Jane finished.

Darcy rolled her eyes. "If you're done fangirling-" She stopped as she heard a ringing come from her bag. "That's weird. I don't normally get signal here." Darcy said as she reached for her cell.

"I'm going to read over Banner's notes." Jane said, hopping up from the sofa.

"Don't forget you're cooking tonight!" Darcy called after her whilst resigning herself to the fact that she would have to end up making dinner again. She sighed. At least if she made it it'd be edible.

At last her hands found her phone and pulled it out.

"Hello?" She asked, not having had time to check the caller ID.

"Darcy!" The voice on the other end said. Darcy felt her stomach drop.

"Mom." She stated.

"Hello darling," Her mom replied. Darcy was strongly resisting the urge to fling the phone out of the window.

"Hi." She replied instead, walking into the kitchen. She headed straight for the fridge and pulled out the bottle of wine.

"Is that all I get?" Her mom said. "I haven't spoken to you in months and I get 'hi?'"

Darcy rolled her eyes and got a glass. "I'm sorry mother." She said sarcastically. "How are you?"

"Oh well I'm fine thank you for asking. We had a fundraiser at church last week which went very well. You would know that if you ever bothered to call in on us." She said. Darcy poured herself a generous glass and ignored her.

_I'm fine too,_ she thought. _Got shackled with a God who may or may not be utterly psychotic. Under house arrest. Whatever. Thanks for asking._

"Anyway, dear." Her mom continued. "I was just phoning to ask what time we should expect you on thanksgiving."

Darcy chocked on her wine. "W-what?" She stuttered.

"Are you eating?" Her mom scolded. "That's very rude, darling."

Darcy had to physically bite her lip to stop from retorting. "Thanksgiving?" She prompted.

"Yes, what time will you be here?"

"I can't come." She said quickly.

"What? You can't just not come. What would the neighbours say?"

"I don't really give a damn what the neighbours say, mother." Darcy replied unable to contain herself anymore.

"Darcy Lewis! Watch your language!" She answered.

"Oh I'm watching it. It's great." Darcy replied.

"I don't know what has gotten into you." Her mom said, annoyed. "Now why is my only daughter telling me she is not coming to thanksgiving?"

"I'm just really busy at work." She replied, ignoring the many sarcastic retorts that popped into her head.

"Your brother is coming all the way from California!" Her mom's shrill voice got even higher.

"Well that's great, mom. However I don't think Liam's journey is affecting how much work I have."

"It's ridiculous! You ought to complain. It's not like you're an important worker. They can't keep you from enjoying thanksgiving with your family."

_I don't think enjoying is quite the word_. "Yes well I'm not coming."

"I can't believe you're doing this to us! I didn't raise you to be so selfish. Holidays are for family."

Having almost drained the glass of wine and on the verge of screaming Darcy decided to end the call. "Sorrry...I...I think...signal...going...shskihaiw" She hissed into the phone and hung up.

Her throat burned and her eyes stung but she refused to cry. Her mom hadn't said anything that bad but she always managed to make Darcy feel incredibly aware of just how worthless she was.

She'd been planning on going for a run but at that moment hitting the magical Loki barrier seemed like more fun. Instead she decided to make cookies. It was impossible to be sad when you had cookies, after all.

At the moment she finished mixing the dough, the doorbell rang. She looked up from the bowl expectantly, waiting for someone else to answer it before realising how low the odds of Jane or Loki answering the door were.

She checked her reflection in the window before she left. She'd had another generous glass of wine but the only sign was a slight redness in her eyes.

"Darcy." Adam greeted when she opened the door. Her eyebrows rose in response. She hadn't spoken to him in a few weeks.

"How are you?" He asked.

"Fine thanks, you?" She asked, somewhat awkwardly. She realised that she'd never actually told him that whatever thing they had was over. It was an unfortunate habit of hers, getting bored of boys.

The last thing she wanted to do right now was to officially break up. He was like a giant puppy.

"I'm...can we talk?"

Her eyes flicked to the side in confusion. "Uh we are talking."

"Yeah but..." His looked fleetingly at the guard. "In private?"

"Sure." Darcy said. "Um come in."

They walked into the living room. He went to sit in the arm chair.

"Not there!" She said, realising as she did so how silly she was being. It's just that that was Loki's seat, whether or not he had left his room in the last fortnight.

"Um okay." He answered, moving to the sofa.

"So what did you want to talk about?" She asked, leaning against the wall opposite him.

"Oh God." He said, running his hands through his hair. She felt a spark of annoyance. "Okay I'm just going to say it."  
She looked at him. She should have felt awkward, it sounded like he was breaking up with her, not that they were together but still. Instead, she just didn't care.

"Some of the guys at work were saying that you and Loki were...um...together." He said looking at her expectantly.

A few seconds passed and she burst out laughing. She carried on for a few moments, her sides ached and she clutched them, doubling over and unable to stop.

"Loki and I?" She asked. Tears were springing in her eyes.

"Yeah." He answered. She just about managed to calm herself down.

She couldn't imagine Loki liking anyone let alone romantically liking someone. The guy was too in love with himself.

"What did they say?"

"Just that you and he were quite close." He said, messing his hair up again.

"Well yeah we're friends." She said, the words sounding odd on her tongue but she knew they were true as she said them. It was a complicated as hell friendship but friendship nonetheless.

"Right but more than that." Adam said.

She looked at him sceptically. "And you believed them?" She realised she was getting angry. It was one thing for someone to say it as a joke but for people to actually believe it. For him to accuse her of what in his mind must have been cheating. She felt her hands curl into fists and hid them by folding her arms.

"Well..." He started.

"What because if Jane's fucking one brother I must be doing the other?" She suggested calmly.

"No!" He answered hastily.

She snorted. "Because only I would be stupid enough to fall for the villain?"

He didn't answer. Her words hung heavy in the air.

His silence was answer enough.

Something was clawing the inside of her throat but she wouldn't, she absolutely would not start crying in front of that dick.

"Get out." She said quietly.

"Darcy!" He said, getting up and walking towards her.

"Get out!" She shouted. "Get out of my house! Now!"

He looked desperate but he shook his head and left. She slammed the door after him and stalked back to the kitchen, grabbing her bowl of cookie dough. She didn't want to be alone. If she did she wouldn't be able to stop crying. The idea of going to Jane, however, didn't quite appeal. She wasn't the most sensitive person and she'd want to talk through what happened which was the last thing Darcy wanted to do.

She ended up outside Loki's door, horribly conscious of how odd it was she was going to him but knocking anyway.  
He opened the door, looking at her with confusion.

"Darcy wha-" He stopped as she squeezed under his outstretched arm and walked into his room. "Please, do come in." He added sarcastically.

She looked round his room, realising it was the first time she'd seen it. It comprised mainly of dark wood and green like it had been especially designed for him. The bed had been pushed into the corner as though sleeping were unnecessary, the bed itself tightly made and looking thoroughly unused. The desk contained a neat stack of papers and a Harry Potter book lying face down as though Loki had been in the middle of reading it.

She laughed. "Harry Potter? Really?" The idea of Loki reading it was just too hard for her to imagine.

"What are you doing here?" He asked from behind her. His room was so neat it made her feel guilty about her own mess. And that was nothing compared to Jane's.

"Something happened and I need you to use your sunny personality to cheer me up." She said, sitting on his bed and kicking her legs out.

He jutted his jaw out and looked down in exasperation. "How did I end up your designated entertainment?" He asked.

"Because Jane is busy sciencing."

"She always is." He said. "But that does not explain why you are here."

"Oh stop complaining, I brought cookie dough." She tempted.

"I dislike Midgardian food." He reminded her. She dug her spoon in and filled it with a huge blob of the dough.

"Yeah but this is like..._cookie dough_." She said as though this were answer enough in itself.

He sat down next to her on the bed, still looking at her in the half curious, half annoyed way that he usually did.

"Open up!" She sang, waving the spoon. He sighed in exasperation. Darcy felt the corners of her lips twitch. He took the spoon, his fingers brushing against hers for just a moment. He looked at it with slight disgust.

"How far the mighty have fallen." He said with fierce self hatred before sticking the spoon in his mouth. Darcy had to stifle a giggle, he was acting like it was poisonous.

"Calm down there drama queen, it's just cookie dough." She said with a slight lift to her voice. He chewed for a few moments with a look of silent concentration. Darcy had to bite her lip to stop from laughing. He swallowed with what looked like difficulty then turned to look from her to the bowl and back again.

"Perhaps," He said slowly. "You could stay for a few more moments."

She grinned and leant forward to snatch the spoon back. He scowled slightly at her. The look was amusing, kind of like a pout.

"What? You think I brought this all for you?" She popped a large spoonful in her mouth and held the spoon back out for him.

He took it sceptically and pulled more out of the bowl.

"So," She asked. "Harry Potter? Dreaming of getting your Hogwarts acceptance letter?"

He looked at her coldly, as though she had said something greatly offensive. Her skin burned under his angry gaze, making her want to grow smaller and smaller until she disappeared. Then he looked away as though ashamed.

"No," He said quietly. "Not quite."

_Okay_, she mouthed. His melodrama was exhausting.

"You called me Sirius Black once." He said after a few moments, looking at her with a slight smirk. "I believe I understand that reference now."

"Oddly appropriate." She said thoughtfully. "Yeah, that was a good one. Go Darcy!" She celebrated with another spoonful of cookie dough. "So you think you'd be in Gryffindor or?"

He smirked, the familiar sarcastic, self-depricating smile. She didn't realise how much she'd missed it while he'd been shut up in here. "By all Midgardian standards I'd be in Slytherin."

She shrugged. "I don't know, you could be in Ravenclaw. All smart and stuff." She shoved another spoonful into her mouth.

His eyebrows lifted so that he looked almost impressed. "I see. And you would be where?"

"Hufflepuff." She replied with certainty.

He grinned. "You could be Gryffindor, you know."

"Nah, bravery? I'll take the kitchens."

"It takes a certain degree of bravery to be here." He reminded her. She thought about that for a few moments. She couldn't even think of Loki as intimidating anymore. He was just an adorable sulky guy who lived with her.

She laughed. "Oh God I'm such a nerd. Hogwarts houses? Really?"

He took the spoon from her, the bowl almost empty.

"Oh well." She sighed. "I guess I ought to be allowed to talk about whatever I want seeming as I can totally fire a gun now." She gave him a slight smile. "How did you know how to fire one anyway?"

"Mind control over several SHIELD agents." Loki said casually, not looking up from the bowl. Darcy felt her eyebrows lift at his nonchalant answer but other than that just felt vague amusement that something like that was just normal for him. Of course Hawkeye would probably disagree. She swung her legs round and got up, walking over to his desk.

"Don't!" He said, as she picked up the nearest sheet of paper.

His notes were arranged the same way as his ones at SHIELD but these were all about magic. Scribbled ideas that she recognised from the books she'd leant him.

"Why are you taking notes on magic?" She asked through a mouthful of cookie dough. She swallowed and read some more. The notes were slightly messier than his SHIELD ones, with crossings out and scribbled annotations.

"Stop." He said, walking up beside her and putting his hand on hers to stop her reaching for another sheet.

His touch startled her and she turned to look at him. He was so close but for once it made her thinking clearer rather than more blurred.

"But you're like the master of magic. You can't expect to learn more through fiction." She said, the gears in her mind whirring quickly.

His eyes were bright with alarm, his lips tight and panic-stricken.

"Unless," She said quietly, the idea finally clicking into place in her mind. "You're starting from noth-"

His hand was over her mouth and he had spun her against the wall. She stopped in shock, too startled to even think about biting his hand.

"Enough." He hissed. He was leaning over her, using his height to his advantage as he glared menacingly down at her.

She narrowed her eyes at him questioningly. His hand was clamped around her mouth so tightly that she couldn't move, his other on her arm to keep her against the wall. Her heart was racing in fear. He looked murderous. He looked away quickly. She would have said it was guiltily were it not for the fact that it was Loki.

He closed his eyes slightly as though concentrating and she felt a sharp stab of pain go through her head. She tried to gasp in pain but his hand was still covering her.

He looked at her intently. "I've disabled the monitoring devices in this room but you must be quiet." He whispered seriously. "I am going to take my hand away now."

He lowered his hand slowly at the same time she brought hers up. Her slap broke the silence in the room like a clap of thunder. His head snapped to the side before turning back to her angrily.

"What the fuck, dude?" She hissed annoyed but still keeping her voice down. Her own cheek tingled slightly, shared pain that Loki felt. She cursed once again the fact that she couldn't hurt him more than that.

He brought his hand up curiously to his cheek and looked at her accusingly. "You hit me." He stated.

"You shoved your hand over my mouth!" She retorted angrily, fighting back the urge to swear so much even Fury would be perturbed. "Now, explain!"

He opened his mouth and closed it again, looking away awkwardly.

"Aren't you supposed to be the fricking silver tongue?" She asked him. "What, now you can't speak?"

He opened his mouth slightly, his eyes looking down in a look of such great sadness that she felt her fury start to ebb away and had to fight to remain angry.

"You can't do magic?" She asked, slightly gentler this time.

He turned away. "I can do magic." He said softly, the pain that had been in his face filling each syllable despite his evident fight to remain controlled. He stood motionless, his back to her as he continued. "I can do _some_ magic." He corrected.

"Please," She begged, scared he would stop talking any moment if she stopped prompting him. "Can you pretend I'm like human and explain?"

He took a deep breath in, when he spoke his voice sounded steadier though strained. "My memories of magic were removed." He said, turning to her. She couldn't bring herself to move from the wall. "You cannot remove the ability to do, as you call it, magic. It is not a physical part of you that can be simply cut off, it is more like the blood. It flows through you."

He spoke of magic with a kind of reverence, a respect for it that she hadn't heard him have for anything else.

"The most that they could do was to take the memories." He said. "But creating illusions is equal parts logic and skill. My knowledge has been removed but the skill remains. In short, I can use magic clumsily, worse than I did as a child. It requires more thought and I can do nothing too complex."

His eyes finally met hers. She saw how much it was destroying him, admitting his weakness like that. She felt vaguely honoured that she'd been trusted with it. Darcy wondered how long it had been since he'd opened up to someone like that.

"That's why you haven't tried anything." She said, more pieces falling into place. "None of your crazy world domination stuff. You don't have the power."

Loki smirked and looked up in annoyance. "You think my brother would have sent me here if I did?"

"Okay but..." She trailed off, still trying to make sense of it all and wondering when having a rational conversation about magic became a part of her life. "You used magic before. That illusion with the spiders!" She pointed out, still not having entirely forgiven him for that one. "And just now with the monitoring equipment!"

He shook his head in shame. He looked so upset, she'd never seen him like that before. True on anyone else the difference would have been negligible, on Loki however the slight crease at his eyes and downturn of his lips were heartbreaking. She'd never expected to feel such sympathy towards him.

"Simple tricks." He said in disgust. "They ought not even need to be conscious. In my present state they exhaust me."

She recalled the pain she'd felt when he killed the recorders. The headache at the spiders. The fact that her and Loki had both been ill the next day...

"And you won't tell Fury?" She asked.

Loki laughed mirthlessly. "And he will of course help me to get my power back?"

"Well no but-"

"You won't tell him." He stated.

"Excuse me?" She asked, insulted. "I'll tell him if I damn well want to. You're still kind of public enemy number one. Technically, just talking to you kind of makes me a traitor to my own species."

"But you won't tell him." He repeated, this time with a slight smirk.

She thought for a moment, wondering where her sudden loyalty for Loki came from but knowing that it was definitely there. She was so screwed...

"No, I suppose I won't." She agreed reluctantly. "So who took your magic? Or your memories of it or whatever?"

Loki smiled and shook his head slightly. She found herself covering the few steps between them, her hand resting comfortingly on his arm. "My mother. Presumably at the same time she placed the binding curse." He said at last. _Curse?_ Wow, that word stung a bit.

"Frigga?" Darcy asked, remembering Thor talking about her. "But I thought she was nice?"

Loki closed his eyes for a few moments before looking away from her and taking a few steps away. She waited a few moments to see if he said anything but he remained silent.

"You didn't tell me." She said, feeling rather pathetic the moment she said it.

He smirked up at her. "What is the Midgardian saying? What you do not know of me could fill a book?"

"Yeah well you can read it for me and make notes." She said, glancing over at the neat stack of papers. There were an awful lot of them. "Um...just how close are you to figuring out magic?"

He glanced at her. "You are still scared?"

"Of you having magic?" She asked. "Of course I am! You haven't exactly given up your plans of world domination."

"And let me ask you, Darcy Lewis," He said, advancing on her, his use of her full name too intimate, sending shivers down her spine. "If I did, what would _you_ do?"

"I..." She managed. His eyes were locked on hers, to look away was to fail, to maintain contact was to suffer in defeat. "I'd stop you." She answered defiantly.  
He laughed. Not his usual self mocking laugh but a cruel, vindictive one which stabbed at her like knives. She fought the urge to flinch."What exactly would you do?" He was as close to her now as possible, her back arched against the wall, face looking up at him. Well they were either going to have sex of kill each other then, part of her brain thought. She wasn't sure which idea was more repulsive.

"Whatever it takes." She said.

"You ought to be careful, saying such things could be dangerous." His voice was low.

She couldn't hold up the seriousness anymore and broke into snorting giggles. Loki looked confused. "Oh come on!" She said, through laughter. "I'd probably just get the Black Widow. And besides, you can't get away with that intimidating 'fear me!' stuff anymore, like I just shared cookie dough with you."

He smiled with only one side of his mouth, a kind of exasperated amusement. "You are ridiculous."

"You've said." She agreed. "Now come on. You can't do magic, boo hoo. I can't do science."

"A slight difference." He pointed out.

She lowered her voice into a deep, appallingly bad English accent. "But you come from a place where they are one and the same."

Loki laughed and she tried desperately to hide the fact that his laugh was one of the most beautiful things she'd ever heard. Much nicer than the earlier one. It wasn't that she liked Loki in that way or anything, just that it was pretty damn hard to ignore the fact that everything about the guy from his chiselled features to his leather swathed figure hinted that he ought to be the God of sex not lies.

Darcy ignored all thoughts of how they could go from fighting to joking in seconds. Instead, they worked on a compromise that night, adding more things to the list of things they mutually but not consciously agreed not to talk about. Darcy didn't mention his lack of magic and it wasn't until she left his room well past midnight that she realised she hadn't thought about her mom or Adam. Despite his obvious flaws, she had to admit, he was a pretty good distraction.

* * *

Chapter Title from You Me At Six's A Little Bit of Truth. Writing to avoid the pain of Doctor Who...thank you for the reviews, some of them have been the nicest things I've ever read so thank you so much.


	13. Chapter 13: Another Night Another Score

"Hey!" Darcy yelled, slamming her fist into his door. "It is morning so get your ass out of bed!" She smiled, waking Loki up was one of the only things that got Darcy through the morning these days.

The door swung open and she blinked up at him in shock. This was her first time knocking.

He was dressed already, or maybe that was still dressed as his pale skin had gone almost pallid and the shadows round his eyes made her own panda eyes look bare.

"Did you sleep at all?" She asked, squinting up at him in concern.

"I was busy." He answered, his eyes slowly taking in her crumpled up fluffy pyjamas, bed head and glasses. She felt a blush creep into her cheeks and pulled on the hems of her sleeves.

"Busy doing what?" She asked, trying to divert attention away from how she was dressed.

"It doesn't matter." He said. He leant against the edge of the door and raised a condescending eyebrow at her. "So do you always have hair like that in the mornings."

"Oh you would love to know." She joked before realising that she'd never jokingly flirted with Loki before like she did with everyone else and if possible his skin had gone even paler. "An..anyway," She stuttered trying to recover. "it _does_ matter. Magical bindy thing." She gestured between them. "So what were you doing?"

"Drop it." He whispered, dangerously.

"But-"

"Leave it." He snapped, stalking past her. She was going to protest but ended up shaking her head in exasperation. It was too early in the morning for his mood swings.

Banner was still in the lab when they arrived. He nodded curtly to them and Loki migrated to his usual space. He'd been silent the rest of the morning, nothing out of the ordinary there but given their talk last night she thought maybe his month's silence would be over.

No such luck.

"Darcy!" Jane called, interrupting her from a very detailed doodle of a dinosaur.

"Yeah?" She asked, looking up. Her and Banner were in the corner and she was gesturing frantically for her to come over. Darcy pushed her glasses back up her nose, her conversation with Loki that morning meaning she had to skip putting contacts in.

"Could you come over here for a moment please?" Darcy scowled and glanced over at Loki who wasn't paying attention.

She walked over. "S'up?" She asked. She crossed her arms over her waist.

"Can you explain?" She asked, turning to Banner.

"Right," He said, turning to her. "Hi, I'm Dr Banner, I don't know whether I got a chance to introduce myself yesterday-"

Darcy waved him away. "Yeah yeah big green monster kinda hard to miss, I know who are." "Darcy!" Jane scolded.

"Sorry," Darcy said, turning to him, really not meaning it and not sounding like she did either. She was having trouble mustering her usual bubbly hyperness."Was that rude? She thinks I'm rude."

Banner laughed slightly. "I worked with Tony Stark, I think I can handle a few references to the other guy."

"Good to know," Darcy said. "So what's up?"

"We need to run a few in lab experiments. A little bigger than can be done in here. I'm told you're the person who can arrange that?"

Darcy shrugged. "Yeah sure, just write down what you need and I'll send the right emails." She turned to Jane. "Is that it?"

Jane lowered her voice into a whisper. "No um, Loki looks kind of tired. Like, especially so." Loki had looked progressively more exhausted over the month.

Better, without the wounds, but exhausted nonetheless. Today was evidently even worse.

"Yeah, so?" Darcy asked, blowing a bubble with her gum.

"Well do you know why?" Jane whispered.

"Why would I know?" Darcy asked a little defensively looking down at the floor.

"Come on, Darcy." Jane demanded. "You're the only one he talks to."

"I don't know anything." She said, painfully aware of how badly she was lying. It was true she didn't know why he was so tired but surely their late night was at least part of that?

"Uh huh." Jane said, clearly unconvinced.

"About your relationship with uh the God of leather." Banner said to her. "The guy's only got crazier since I saw him last. You want to be careful."

"Thanks." Darcy said to him, pressing her lips into a thin line to stop from telling him that she'd already figured that out.

"And other people might notice." He said.

"What do you mean?" She asked, for the second time that day colour flooding her cheeks. Had he heard the same things Adam had? Oh God, she really didn't want to have _the talk_ with the Hulk. How embarrassing...

"I mean that if people find out that you and he are in any way...friendly. They could use you as leverage against him. It's not just he that might hurt you."

The warning seemed rather eerie what with the precautions Matt gave her during every self defence lesson. She could almost hear his voice: "Come on, Darce, this is important. Pay attention." Did no one get that she realised how dangerous her situation was? She was very much aware of it but she couldn't maintain a level of fear for months. She'd just...acclimatised to it.

"Thanks." She replied. "I'll uh, bear that in mind."

He nodded and turned round to write down what he needed for the experiments. Darcy then spent a busy morning sending emails before typing up Loki's notes. She kept expecting someone to come in and yell at Loki for the lack of recording equipment in his room last night but no one did.

It was only when she thought about why they wouldn't that she felt slightly uncomfortable. She certainly knew what she would think if two people were in a bedroom together and cut the cameras. She'd done it with Adam...

She was surprised to find she didn't particularly care. If they thought she was doing Loki then they clearly overestimated her ability to talk to him.

She looked at him as he worked, biting his lip in concentration. Oh yes, there were definitely worse rumours in the world.

Darcy's night to cook meant that everyone ate decently for once. Having had a decent meal of pork chops, potatoes and gravy, everyone seemed to be in a good mood. Jane was practically skipping because they were so close to building a bridge to Asgard, Darcy was happy because Banner meant that work was happy and Loki...well Loki wasn't really the sort to be happy unless people were kneeling down in front of him so he didn't count.

Jane decided to go to bed early so that she'd be good for work tomorrow leaving just Loki and Darcy in the kitchen.

"Wine?" She asked. He hesitated before nodding. "What?" She asked. "Not retreating to your batcave tonight?"

"My what?" He asked, squinting at her in confusion.

"Don't worry. Look we're having half decent stuff because we're celebrating the near end of Jane's bridge thing." She handed him the glass and grinned. He smiled slightly in return.

"What will happen when it is completed?" He asked.

Darcy thought for a moment. "Well Fury will go ape shit at Thor for sending you here to us. Probably demand he take you back." She paused, realising that she'd somehow managed to forget that slight point of the whole experiment. "If...when that fails," She said because she refused to accept the alternative of

Loki going off to more torture. "I guess we'll start work on improving it."

Loki nodded, thoughtfully.

How had she managed to forget that the thing they were working so hard to build was being constructed to deliver Loki back? Her eyes wandered guiltily to the scar on his eye.

But then why would he help? It was the question she'd been trying to answer for so long. Last night she thought she'd found the answer. The maths and the science were probably helping him figure out his magic.

But was figuring out magic worth being sent back to a place they could take it away again?

"Are you all right?" Loki asked, watching her with slight concern and sounding as though worried she had mental problems.

"Yeeees." She said slowly, wondering why he'd asked her.

"You look...pained." He said.

"I was just thinking." She said awkwardly. She had two answers. Either he was secretly building something else, which Jane would notice or...he wanted to be back in Asgard? Wow. She didn't think her company was that bad.

"Ahh yes that explains it." He said. She scowled at him. He smirked in response beforehis smile suddenly dropped. He glanced to the right and her eyes followed, wondering if Jane had appeared but no one was there, when she looked back at him his eyes were closed.

"What are you doing?" She asked. He gripped the glass too tightly, glass shattering all over the floor and spilling wine everywhere. "Loki?" She asked, panic rising in her voice which she desperately tried to quell. She realised suddenly that it was the first time she'd said his name to him but the full effect of it was lost.

She rushed over to him, gripping his arm. Beads of sweat were forming on his forehead.

"Loki!" She shouted. "Jane!" She screamed, trying desperately to find help. She shook him but his eyes remained clenched tight, his body slightly shuddering.

"Loki!" She shouted again at him, tears springing to her eyes in her panic.

Suddenly, he gasped, his eyes springing open and latching onto hers. Distantly she heard Jane's running footsteps.

He looked at her intently, the one second lasting a life time. "I'm sorry." He said. He seemed to her to glow green for a moment and then she felt like she'd been set on fire, the flames starting at her toes and springing to her head in fiery pain. Her vision went black and she screamed. When she fell to the floor she wasn't even conscious of Loki falling with her.

Darcy's first thought when she woke up was that she was hungover. This thought was founded on a number of reasons.

The first was that her head felt very groggy, so much so that it took a while even for this thought to form because she felt like she was swimming in her own mind. He brain seemed to be pulsing against her skull, threatening to break free and cause her considerable pain in the process.

The second was that she was not in her own bed. She could feel a papery thin sheet draped around her and cold sheets pressed up under her back. The mattress was thin but comfortable. Definitely not her lumpy but familiar mattress of home.

The third was that she was naked. This one was pretty self explanatory. It wasn't exactly her first time.

And finally, she could hear rhythmic beeping which at first she assumed was in her head.

She opened her eyes and flinched back at the bright white light that greeted her.

"Darcy!" A voice said. She opened her eyes slowly this time, trying to get them used to the light.

"Darcy." The same voice repeated. She located a woman standing near her, she looked familiar but she couldn't place her. She was wearing bright white which made Darcy's eyes sting a little.

"What-" She started but her voice was hoarse, flame burning in her throat when she tried to speak.

"Oh careful," The woman said. "It might be a little sore."

_A little?_ She thought, _how about we swap and you tell me how much it hurts then? _The woman pressed a paper cup to her lips and she gulped the water down desperately. She felt like she hadn't had a drink in days. The water burned pleasantly as it travelled down.

When she was finished she tried again. "What happened?" She managed to whisper.

"I'm not quite sure I'm the best one to answer that, honey." The woman said patronisingly. "I'm going to go fetch Dr Foster now, okay?"

Darcy nodded once, as much as she could lying down. She seemed to be in some kind of hospital, she was in the kind of hospital gown things found there but that didn't make sense. She hadn't been in an accident. She tried to think and at once the grogginess cleared. She remembered her panic, Loki glowing green and the pain, the searing pain that flared through her before she slammed into the kitchen tiles.

She felt bile rise in her throat but she swallowed it quickly. She would not be sick. She wouldn't.

So she'd been moved. She couldn't be in a hospital because that would involve taking Loki there too. Then she realised why the doctor was so familiar. It was the same one that had tended to Loki when he first arrived. She was in SHIELD then. Darcy's bed was slanted slightly so that she was sat up to face the room, meaning she could see Jane arrive.

"Darcy!" Jane squealed as she ran in.

"Jane." Darcy greeted questioningly. She was acting ridiculously excited.

"You're awake!" Jane pointed out.

"Yeeeeeaaah..." Darcy said, waiting for a bit more of an explanation. "Don't act too surprised, I do wake up occasionally."

"Yes but," Jane stood by her bed. "You've been out a while."

"What like a few days?" Darcy asked, confused. It didn't feel like she'd had more than a few hours of sleep.

Jane's face paled and she fiddled with the bracelet on her wrist nervously. "Darcy," She said, her bedside manner scaring her. "You've been out for three weeks."

"W-w-what?" Darcy stuttered. "No. No I haven't."

"It's the eleventh of December." Jane said gently. "You've been out for three weeks and two days." Her voice broke slightly. "We didn't know if you'd wake up."

Darcy let that sink in for a few moments. That was almost a month of nothingness in her life. "Did I miss much?" She asked at last.

Jane shrugged. "Banner's still here. We're so close to building our own bridge."

"That's good." Darcy acknowledged. "But I meant, like, in the wider world."

Jane blushed, evidently aware of the fact she'd gone straight to science mode. "There have been some terrorist bombings, some guy called the Mandarin."

"Adam mentioned him!" Darcy said, glad to have something she knew a bit about then feeling guilty that she was slightly happy over some terrorist bombings.

"Yeah, he visited you a few times, by the way. I told him to leave you alone when I found out." Jane said, a set to her jaw. "Anyway, Tony threatened him...The Mandarin, that is, not Adam."

"He did what?" Darcy asked, her mouth gaping slightly. Even Tony Stark wouldn't be so arrogant to threaten a terrorist, would he?

"He threatened the Mandarin. Gave him his home address. SHIELD's gone insane, they couldn't block the footage in time. This was yesterday. We're all awaiting developments but it's kind of frantic round here." Darcy supposed if anyone would it'd be him. Or maybe Loki.

"So..." Darcy started awkwardly. "What happened?"

Jane frowned slightly. "I was hoping you'd be able to shed some light on that."

Darcy shook her head. "The last thing I remember-" she stopped herself. She couldn't say about Loki. Not until she spoke to him about it at least. "We'd finished dinner and I was getting wine."

Jane looked at her steadily. "I was in my room and I heard you shouting. You were screaming Loki's name and mine once. When I got to you, you and Loki were both unconscious."

"Is he-" Darcy asked quickly, forgetting to mask the panic.

"Alive?" Jane asked and laughed. "He's fine. He was unconscious for three days."

Darcy nodded, relief flooding through her. "Where is he?" She asked. "Shouldn't he kind of be here?"

"He's next door." Jane said, looking down in a way Darcy recognised as not the whole truth. She was about to comment when Jane continued. "He's been asking after you."

"He has?" Darcy asked in surprise.

"Well he asked twice." Jane conceded. "But given that he hasn't said anything to me that isn't insulting or strictly science related it's practically begging."

"What he didn't visit?" She asked, oddly insulted that he hadn't wanted to see her.

Jane fiddled with her bracelet again. "Umm yeah he was going to. How are you feeling?" She asked.

"Fine." Darcy said, narrowing her eyes at her. "Jane, what aren't you telling me?"

"I..." Jane started, looking hopeless. She was an awful liar. Worse than Darcy.

"Dr Foster?" Jane was spared answering by the return of the doctor.

"Yes?" Jane asked in obvious relief, spinning round to face her.

"I'm afraid we really must run some tests on Miss Lewis." She said.

"Ahh right. Of course. I'll be in the lab. Could you get me when you're done?"

The doctor looked from Darcy to Jane, raising her eyebrows at the later. Jane gave an almost imperceptible shake of the head.

"What the fuck is going on?" Darcy asked, annoyed at such obvious secret keeping.

"Director Fury says that if she passes the tests then she's to be moved immediately."

"What?" Jane asked, angrily. "That's ridiculous! She's only just woken up for God's sake!"

"I'm sorry Dr Foster, I don't make the rules." The doctor genuinely looked apologetic.

"At least let her rest a bit longer." Jane pleaded.

"There's really nothing I can-"

"Until tomorrow?" Jane suggested.

"Hello?" Darcy shouted at them, her throat burning but feeling it was worth it.

The doctor swallowed and looked at the clip board in her hands. "I suppose should she fail one of the final tests she'd need another night in here."

Jane grinned. "Thank you so much." She turned to Darcy. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah?" Darcy replied, half annoyed and half confused. Jane kissed her forehead and left the room.

Darcy felt exhausted. "I don't suppose you're going to tell me what's going on tomorrow?"

"I'm afraid you don't have the clearance." The doctor said gently. "Don't worry, it's nothing bad."

"Yeah it sure sounds it." Darcy grumbled.

"I have to run a few tests if that's okay." She replied in a way that left it clear there was no room for disagreement.

"All right but not the mental kind, right?" Darcy checked. "Because I feel like I have a hangover the kind high school students can only dream of."

The doctor smiled kindly. "No, nothing like that."

Those words did not prepare Darcy for the kind of poking and prodding she was expected to endure over the next hour. By the time she finished, she was barely able to keep her eyes open and succumbed to sleep.

* * *

Chapter title from All Time Low's Stella. This may not flow particularly well, it was two separate chapters and then I added some stuff in while editing but thank you for reading and I genuinely started crying at some of the reviews because they were so nice so please stop being so cute or I won't be able to break your hearts with this fic...(I'm joking) (I hope)


	14. Chapter 14: Where Do You Run?

When she woke next, she felt a lot better rested than she had the day before. Her head was clear and the light didn't burn so much.

"How are you feeling?" The doctor asked, walking over to her calmly, clip board in hand.

"Better." Darcy said, in a surprisingly good mood for a morning. "I'm starving though."

The doctor smiled again. "Yes, being fed by a tube will do that. I'll have someone bring you some food down. You passed the tests yesterday but I just need to do a quick check up."

The tests took less than ten minutes, much quicker than they had been the day before for which Darcy was very thankful. The doctor removed some bandages from her arm and told her that she'd been on an IV drip for a while. Darcy was glad she hadn't woken up while on it, she wasn't fond of needles and probably would have yanked it out, even with Jane's rants every film they watched that 'you must never , ever do that Darcy, those things are in you for a reason'.

The doctor showed her a small bathroom at the end of her room so Darcy was able to take a ridiculously long hot shower to wash off the rest of her grogginess. She liked hot showers anyway, it was the only way she felt clean but this was like rebirth.

There was no hairdryer so Darcy settled for plaiting her hair into two long braids. Jane had moved some clothes into her room for her when she first arrived so she was even able to get dressed into something other than a hospital gown which she would deny she ever wore in the first place.

By the time she returned, her food had arrived along with Jane.

"Hey." Darcy greeted. Jane was sat in the chair next to the bed with some journals spread open on her lap.

Jane looked up like a startled rabbit. "Oh hi, sorry I was just-"

Darcy waved away her explanations, she was used to Jane going sciencey. "It's fine." Darcy said, hopping onto the bed on top of the sheet and pulling the tray of lasagne towards her. It must have been quite late for her to be served dinner food. She wondered how out of sync she was but turned her attention back to her food.

It was a disappointingly small portion. She stuck a forkful in her mouth hungrily.

"How are you feeling?" Jane asked her.

"Better." Darcy said. "Fine actually. I guess I can come help you and Banner in the labs today."

She took another bite, eying Jane's reaction carefully. As predicted, Jane looked away at that moment. "Yeah." Jane said, her voice wavering slightly. "Oh I forgot to say. Your mom phoned about a week ago asking when you'd be over for Christmas. Don't worry, it's all arranged plane tickets bought and everything."

"What?" Darcy asked sharply.

"I thought you would..." Jane looked disappointed, she'd clearly expected it to be a pleasant surprise. Darcy sighed, she couldn't blame Jane. It's wasn't like she ranted openly about her family, she just kind of ignored them in the hope they'd ignore her. It wasn't even like she had anything to rant about either, they weren't bad people they just didn't get along.

"It's fine. Thank you." Darcy said. "But what about Loki?"

"He would go too." Jane said.

Darcy stared at her to see if she was joking. She could just imagine walking up to her traditional mother with leather clad Loki and introducing him as the Norse

God of Mischief. "You expect me to take Loki with me to see my family?"

Jane shrugged. "It was Fury's idea. He thought you could introduce him as your boyfriends or something."

"My what?!" Darcy stuttered. They were joking. They had to be joking.

"You can sort out the details later. Anyway, I brought you this. It's a simplified version of the bridge, thought you might want to read it." Darcy was still trying to process all the stuff about Loki and Christmas but she figured she could think about it later. She was very good at putting off thoughts. She focused on the book.

"Right," Darcy said through lasagne, trying to show some enthusiasm. "Yeah."

She took the battered book and attempted to read it but it was still way over her head. Instead she skimmed the bits she understood. "Woah." She said, on her final bite of lasagne. She was surprisingly full. "Is this right?"

She pointed to the figure Jane had written. Jane leant over and checked it.

"Yes." She confirmed.

"Jane that's a lot of energy." Darcy pointed out.

"I know."

"Yeah but we can't make that kind of energy!" Darcy added. Jane looked like she was on the verge of correcting something she'd said. You probably couldn't make energy or something but Jane didn't mention it.

"True." Jane said slowly. "But I think I know someone who can."

At that moment they heard running outside in the corridor. They both looked up simultaneously, to each other and back to the door. In seconds they were joining the people running along the corridor.

"What's going on?" Darcy shouted.

"I don't know!" Jane shouted back from next to her.

Everyone was gathering in a room at the end. Darcy and Jane entered. It was one of the information rooms, they had one on every floor but Darcy had never seen one so busy. Everyone was surrounding a TV screen where a news report was playing.  
"...gathered around millionaire Tony Stark's home in Malibu which just a few moments ago was the scene of a mass organised attack by The Mandarin. Mr Stark, best known for his invention of the Iron Man suit and his participation in The Battle of New York, had previously taunted The Mandarin to come.

"Having given out his address a few days ago, Mr Stark was assumed to have gone into hiding but it has been confirmed that he, his partner, CEO of Stark Industries; Miss Virginia "Pepper" Potts and scientist; Maya Hansen were present when the Mandarin attacked. Miss Potts and Dr Hansen are well but there has been no sign of Mr Stark. The search continues but at this stage hope of survival is very slim. Mr Stark is presumed dead."

Everyone in the room started talking, drowning the rest of report out. Darcy turned to Jane whose face was ashen.

She opened her mouth to speak but the loudspeaker blared over her. "Everyone stay calm." Fury's voice said. Darcy sent a querying look at Jane who shook her head. So Fury wasn't on base. She assumed every SHIELD compound was hearing this then. "Stark ain't dead. We've picked up the suit's energy signature. I want you finding him. Everyone return to your normal duties."

The intercom beeped out. "Well that was dramatic." Darcy said cheerily.

"Hey!" A voice shouted at her. She looked up to see a guard walking towards her. He was dark skinned and almost as big as Thor had been. She didn't recognise him. "You aren't supposed to be out."

"Out of where?" She asked. "The hospital room? Yeah but I'm fine now."

Jane was looking guilty, only staring at the floor.

"You were supposed to be taken downstairs when you woke up." He said gruffly.

"I was?" She asked, glancing at Jane.

"Yeah, taken to your buddy." He said, annoyed.

"Loki?" She asked, surprised.

"Yes." The man confirmed. Darcy grinned.

"Great. I have some choice words for him." She said, the man gripped her arm which she didn't think was entirely necessary but she let him anyway because she couldn't really be bothered to protest.

"See you later!" She called to Jane.

They got the lift to the floor below. The number of the floor slid into view as the door opened. Floor 14. The holding cells. There weren't many because the New Mexico base was primarily for research but there were enough for emergencies. Apparently that's what she qualified as.

She gave the guard a look of disgust.

"Don't worry." He said, surprisingly gently. "It's only for a few days until the people up above think of something else."

"Yeah well they can go fuck themselves." She told him. Eloquent as ever. Jane had known about this. Jane was going to pay.

He snorted softly and led her to a stop about halfway down. There were guards at every single door. The one outside this one scanned her card across it to open it.

The cell was small but clean and made of metal like the training rooms. A padded bench ran along the furthest edge of the cell. Loki was sprawled across it in the far corner, one of his hands handcuffed to a hook on the wall.

He jumped up when he saw her, a look of shocked happiness on his face. She had to refrain from smiling, it was nice that he was so happy to see her but he'd change his mind soon after she started shouting at him. She had a lot of shouting planned. Thank God her throat was better.

"Darcy." He breathed with relief. She nodded at him, not trusting herself to speak with the guard present.

The one that was stationed outside the door handed a set of handcuffs to the one that had led her there. She raised her eyebrows at him sceptically.

"You have got to be kidding me." She said.

The guard shrugged. "Sorry, standard procedure."

She rolled her eyes, she couldn't really hold it against the guard guard though it didn't stop her feeling annoyed with both of them. Fury however would be getting an earful when she got out. The guard gestured for her to sit on the opposite side of the bench to Loki and he cuffed her hand to a metal hook on her side.

The guard nodded and left, the cell door shutting firmly behind him, sealing her in with Loki.

"Darcy," He started.

Her head snapped to face him. "You used magic." She said calmly with a hint of hardness to her voice.

He looked slightly taken aback at her directness. "I...yes I did." He admitted.

"A lot of magic." She added.

He hesitated and nodded.

"Why?" She asked.

"I can't tell you." He answered quickly.

She leant back against the wall and stretched her legs out along the bench before raising her head to stare at him coldly. "Why not?"

"Because I can't." He snapped.

Her face remained the same but she lowered her voice.

"Why not?" She repeated.

"Because I can't." He repeated again, angrier this time.

Her hand that was chained to the peg hung limply slightly level to her shoulder meaning that the cold hand cuff was cutting into her skin but she ignored it. She _would_ get answers.

"You used magic." She said, the same monotonous tone to her voice.

He said nothing.

"And you can't tell me why." She added.

He remained silent.

"Jane said they didn't think I'd wake up." She told him, the coldness in her voice cutting at him like a knife edge. "I almost died and you won't tell me why."

"It's better if you don't know." He said calmly, his eyes pleading with her to accept that which only infuriated her more.

"I ALMOST DIED, LOKI!" She shouted at him. "Do you not care about that?"

"Of course I do." He retorted angrily, standing up.

"I mean for more than the stupid magical reasons!" She shouted back, standing up too. "I mean don't you care that I almost died?"

"I...yes." He said, looking as though it pained him to admit it.

"Then why," She asked tears filling her eyes. She'd thought she'd got past the point of him caring as her only as a magical hostage. Apparently she was wrong. "Did you think that it was worth risking my life to do your little magic trick?"

"_I can't tell you_." He said slowly, sneering each word as if to a child.

"What because that knowledge is too much for me?" She asked sarcastically.

"Yes, it is." He growled.

"Urgh!" She screamed. "You pretentious, horse-fucking bastard! That is not your choice to make!"

"If there was another way then I would have done it." He said calmly, regaining control in the face of her fury.

"And you can't tell me why?" She asked, her pitch rising.

"It is not my duty to tell you anything." He sneered. "You are human."

"Oh don't you fucking dare go back to your 'Asgardian prince holier than thou' routine. Yes I am human. I'm Darcy Lewis. I'm the woman who wakes you up in the morning. The one who lends you books. The one who knows your big M word secret. And, oh yeah, that's right, the one who you almost just kill-"

Her words dissolved into a scream as the world shook and she went slamming into the side of the wall. A blast went off in her ears so loud that she could only hear ringing. Dust was raining from the ceiling and parts were falling down.

The whole world was falling apart. Or so it seemed.

A chunk of plaster fell from the ceiling, smashing into her leg. Her frightened shreak morphed into a scream of pain as more rubble fell. She coughed on the dust as the world span around her. She shut her eyes to protect them from the dust. When she could no longer feel it raining down on her face, she opened them.

She blinked a few times as the rubble cleared. It was still falling but Loki was over her, protecting her from the worst.

"What was that?" She asked through dust.

"Shh." He whispered urgently. She stayed still, trying to ignore the burning pain in her leg which was making her vision go black at the edges.

Finally the world stopped shaking and she could see the wreckage. The structure was still standing but the walls around them had caved in so that a maze of wreckage was formed, rubble in every direction. They were lucky the entire compound hadn't collapsed. The smell of burning hung heavily in the air wrenched apart only by the shrill screams emanating in the distance.

She shoved the plaster off her leg with a lot of effort, biting her tongue to stop from screaming from the pain and thankful she still had some painkillers in her system. Her ankle felt pretty smashed.

"This was no accident." Loki said, his voice low and serious.

At the moment he said that they could hear bullets being fired.

"Someone's ambushing SHIELD?" She asked, panicked. SHIELD was supposed to be untouchable. Loki glanced towards the exit.

For a moment she thought he was going to leave her, after all what better time to escape? He hadn't cared about her dying when he did magic, he clearly didn't care about leaving her now. She felt a punch of betrayal and cursed herself. Any idiot would have it in to their heads by now that Loki didn't care but

Darcy kept managing to convince herself otherwise.

But he couldn't leave her. He could be next door or the floor below but further than that and they'd both be writhing on the floor. As if remembering it at the same time as she did, he turned back to her.

"Can you walk?" He demanded.

"Dude, you're lucky I'm still conscious." She replied.

His lips curled up in disgust but he leant over and wrapped an arm behind her back and another below her leg so that he was carrying her. She bit her tongue so much she tasted blood as her ankle flicked but he noticed this and re-arranged his hands.

He picked his way through the rubble out of what used to be the cell door. Darcy tossed her broken handcuff off of her right wrist, the wall it was attached to barely still standing, and wrapped the arm closest to Loki round his neck so that she was easier to carry. She didn't want to be any more of a burden.

"We need to get out before the support gives way." She told him.

"Yes I'm well aware." He snapped.

He made it outside the now redundant cell wall before he stopped. The guard that had been outside the cell hadn't been as lucky as they had, she'd been hit in the head by one of the metal support beams, her crumpled form lying bleeding on the floor, covered in dust.

Darcy's hand gripped Loki's leather collar. His face fell to the woman with a passive glance. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the woman. Death seemed to have such a quiet captivation over her, she was unable to look away from the scarlet blood blazing against the pallid skin. She recalled the anger she'd felt towards the woman as she'd been locked in the cell, the woman whose name she did not know but who now lay dead, one among countless others that she could see scattered across the hallway.

"We need protection." Loki's voice told her calmly.

She frowned at him. "Like what?"

"Like the weapons found on your agents." Loki said simply.

"No." She said, eyes widening in horror. "No we can't...we can't rifle through dead people's possessions!"

"At this moment we have no choice." Loki said, crouching down next to the woman, balancing Darcy on his knee. It would have been romantic were the circumstances different. "And I don't think they will miss them, if it's any consolation."

"This is stupid!" She protested, dust was still raining from the ceiling. "We can't waste time, the whole place will collapse!"

Loki leant over to the woman's pockets, running his pale hands through them in desperate and quick search. "What is waiting up there is far worse, believe me."

"How do you know so much about it?" She demanded. "Why can't you just tell me for once?"

"Can you use this?" He asked, handing her a small black box.

"Yeah sure," She said, distracted for a moment with a slight grin. "It's a taser, I once got your big bro with one."

"You will have to tell me." Loki said distractedly without a hint of a smile. He was still focused on finding something else. "A gun though it is beneath me and above you..."

"Hey!" He threw the gun to the side.

"Ahh!" He said happily, pulling a dagger out of a holder on her belt. "Right, now we go."

He slipped the dagger into a compartment hidden in the leather and in one swift moment had picked her up and was running. He wasn't looking at her, his focus undivided from the task at hand.

"We can't go straight up," She said. "We have to check Jane's okay."

"She was with the monster, I believe she will be fine." He said.

"You don't know that!"

"We do not have time to check. We must get away from here."

"What?" She asked, looking up at him. "Get away from here? How are we supposed to do that?"

They heard movement from the end of the hallway and froze. Darcy could feel Loki's heart beating incessantly quickly and felt her own race to meet his. Loki was scared, or at the very least anticipating something scary and that was good enough for Darcy to believe she wanted to be a thousand miles away.

She heard footsteps running towards them. At first she thought they were SHIELD agents as they were dressed in navy but as they reached them she saw that it darker, almost black. Their faces were covered but they all seemed to be following one person in front.

There were five of them, carrying huge guns that made the guard's pistols look like water guns. Ordinarily, she wouldn't have been quite so scared, after all she had a God on her side. However, currently that God was carrying her and rather out of practice.

Her heart hammered in her chest, adrenaline pumping through her veins.

Loki's arms tightened around her protectively.

"Give us the girl." The man in the front said.

Her hand on Loki's collar tightened even more, sudden panic building in her. Loki wouldn't give her up, if for no other reason than because the magic between them meant he couldn't.

To her surprise, he smiled. He was perfectly still and she realised he'd expected this to happen, none of it surprising him.

He pulled her as close to him as possible so that she was curled up against his chest, her vision went black and the next thing she was conscious of was snow falling against her face.

* * *

Chapter Title from Brighten's I'll Carry You. Apparently I scared some people with my message on the last chapter. Whilst I would love to remind some of you that there are far worse things that can happen to characters than death...I feel that would be rude so I guess I'll just say that I will try to be nice in this fic. (I'm sorry, fic writing is too much power...Is this how Moffat feels?)

Oh and I think some people were concerned about the tests SHIELD were running? I assure you they were purely medical.

As always thank you for the reviews and have a great New year. Thanks for reading.


	15. Chapter 15: Wishful In The Night

Darcy must have passed out because the next thing she knew she was lying on the ground rather than in Loki's arms. She jumped as the first snowflake hit her, forgetting about her crushed ankle and ending up letting out a high pitched scream. Her eyes scrunched up as she winced, it felt like she was being stabbed in one place by a thousand tiny needles.

"Stay still." Loki said, placing his hand on her ankle.

She whimpered slightly but managed to not move it.

"It is not broken." He said after a few moments, removing his hand. "Just badly bruised. I could attempt to fix it with magic but..."

"No." She agreed, thinking that she would rather lose the use of her ankle than be knocked out for another three weeks. Her teeth chattered as the biting wind cut through the holes in the knitting of her jumper.

"Do you have any knowledge of where we are?" He asked.

She sat up and looked round. It was night, or very early in the morning and light powdery snow floated in the air, the kind that doesn't actually settle on the ground. Thick trees surrounded them making Darcy feel miles away from anywhere.

She hugged her arms, it was freezing wherever they were.

"No." She told him, looking at him shrewdly. "How did we get here?"

"I brought us." He told her. "I can bend the distance between places occasionally, I have heard your kind refer to it as apparition."

She recalled Thor telling her about Loki's visit when he was being held prisoner by SHIELD that time he'd tried to get mjolnir back. She knew he could, like, _appear_ but something still didn't make sense. "I thought you kind of collapsed if you used magic?" She asked confused.

"If I use magic poorly. Luckily I have done this before, it requires a lot of energy which is why it can only be done rarely, especially when with two people but it is rather easy even in this state, so long as I do not think it through too much."

"Riiiight." Darcy said, not really understanding at all. One thought continued to cross her mind: Loki had known it was an attack before they saw the attackers. She sought around for a way of asking which didn't sound like an accusation. "But who were those people? You knew them, right?"

"I cannot tell you." He said sharply.

"We're in the middle of nowhere, I almost died, I know about your magic." She listed, bored with having the same conversation. "I think we are through the point of keeping secrets."

He smiled, the intimate smile he sometimes used when laughing at himself. "Darcy, there is so much more about me that you do not know than you do, if you were wise you would endeavour to keep it that way."

"Yeah yeah I've heard the secrets, horse-fucker."

He sighed. "How many times must I tell you that I-"

"Dude, chill. I'm just joking." She said, smiling. He looked at her astounded. "Yeah yeah I know, I use humour at bad times. Anyway the point remains. Even you have to admit, you owe me some kind of explanation."

He shook his head slowly but in defeat rather than refusal. "First we must find out where we are." He said.

"We need to get back to SHIELD." Darcy said, eying him warily. After all, wouldn't now be the perfect time to escape? Find some allies and destroy the world? Why on Earth would he willingly go back to SHIELD?

He nodded. "Obviously but..." He trailed off slowly and looked at her intently, his clear green eyes boring into her blue ones with startling intensity. "These people are dangerous. They could find out where we are just as easily as SHIELD can. We must find SHIELD rather than relying on them to find us."

Darcy nodded slowly, suddenly scared. SHIELD probably already knew where they were and if that was true then the other people did too.

But then, SHIELD had been destroyed. They would be busy sending out rescue teams to New Mexico and the ones that didn't would be out looking for Tony Stark. Her and Loki would be last on that list, after all, they had the avengers to sort Loki out should he try anything.

And that meant that this other group, whoever they were, were probably already looking for them. Especially if, as Loki was hinting, they only attacked the base to reach them.

Loki bent over to pick her up and she cringed away.

"What?" He scowled.

"You aren't carrying me like a kid." She said. "Just, I don't know, help me up and I'll hop."

He smiled slightly at her and shook his head as though he were humouring her. "Fine." He said, leaning over and slipping his arm round the back of her shoulders and under her arm. She leant against him, using him to pull herself up and keeping all her weight on her right foot rather than left.

She shivered still from the cold and by the time she was upright her breathing was short and sharp. It was the kind of cold that you could smell, the dry cleanness of it scraping relentlessly against her throat.

"Which way?" Darcy asked. The forest all looked the same. She looked round, as did Loki.

"This way." He nodded forwards.

"Why?" She asked, looking up at him suspiciously. "You are so just making that up."

"There is a path." He said bluntly. She looked and saw that he was right, there was a faintly discernible trail through the frozen dirt.

Her lips thinned into a taut line. "Fine." She snapped.

Loki rolled his eyes and started forwards, Darcy hopping to keep up. After a few steps he stopped. She almost lost her balance, her grip on him tightening.

"This is preposterous." He said.

"Oh shut up." She said, she could barely mover her lips they were so cold.

His arm round her shoulders pulled her down. Caught off guard, she lost her balance but before she hit the floor his other arm had swept up to catch her legs so that he was carrying her.

"Put me down." She said, pushing his leather wrapped chest.

"Stop acting like a child." He told her, already starting to walk.

He didn't understand: it wasn't about annoying him or anything. She just wanted to be able to walk, to do something. The compound had come crashing down and she'd been trapped. They'd been attacked and if it wasn't for Loki she would probably be wherever they wanted her to be right now. She already felt helpless enough without him carrying her.

For the first time she registered their words. "Give us the girl."

A chill ran through her that had nothing to do with the cold. Why had they wanted her? She was just a research assistant. Her only use was the bond with Loki and he'd been right there, they could have just taken him. Suddenly she didn't want to run anymore, she wanted to curl up and hide somewhere no one could ever find her again.

She decided that fighting against Loki was futile so instead hugged her arms in and pressed herself against his chest, allowing his arms wrapped around her to warm her up. She was uncomfortably aware of his breath against her neck and the way his hands were holding her as though she were breakable.

She inhaled his scent unashamedly, mentally screwing any implications that might otherwise have had because she had no idea what was happening to her and at least Loki was familiar. The smell of his leather and the almost spicy smell of his skin was like the smell of home, it made her back muscles relax despite the cold. No matter who or what Loki was, to her at least, he was the feeling that came from being safe.

God that was ironic but nobody was getting to her with him around.

She closed her eyes against the wind, thinking of what she would be doing right now if she wasn't in the middle of nowhere. She liked to think that she and Jane would be watching old episodes of Friends with a bowl of popcorn like they used to in the few months where she wasn't obsessively looking for Thor: once she'd gotten over the shock of him leaving and before Loki came and sped up the process of finding him. Only in her little fantasy, Loki was there too. He was in the corner reading and ignoring them as they giggled but still he was there.

Of course she knew that in reality Loki would be in his room researching magic. Jane would be in_ her_ room researching Einstien Rosen Bridges. And Darcy would be in _her_ room researching shoes or music or anything to stop her thinking about messaging one of her college friends or even Adam because she just wanted someone to talk to. In the end she'd probably settle for watching TV with a glass of wine or lying on her bed with her iPod.

She preferred to think of the fantasy. Loki would be snapping at them to be quiet and she'd make some snide remark which would receive a glare but with the slight twitching of his lips which meant he was trying not to smile while Jane told her not to provoke him.

It was only a few hours later when she woke up that she realised it'd been an actual dream. The smell of old tobacco and musty sheets filled her nose before she was fully conscious and she coughed.

She opened her eyes and saw that she was in what appeared to be a cheap motel, gaudily decorated in faded greens and purples. The shower was on in a room to her right, the noise of the water echoing loudly through to her. Light was filtering under the old door and some of the steam was even causing the windows where she was to fog up.

She wondered how many times she was going to wake up in strange beds. She at least deserved to get properly drunk first, right?

She stretched her limbs to try to shake off the grogginess. Surely three weeks ought to have been more than enough sleep. She wanted to get up but her ankle felt stiff this morning. Or maybe it was evening. It was all rather confusing.

And oh God had she fallen asleep in Loki's arms? She groaned internally and really really hoped she hadn't snored.

The shower clicked off and a few minutes later Loki came into the main room, fully clothed unfortunately. She'd seen Thor shirtless and her general impression of Asgardians was that they looked much better uncovered.

"You're awake." He scowled as he saw her. His damp hair was pushed back even more than usual, accentuating the sharp planes of his face.

"I should hope so." She replied. "I've had more than enough sleep recently."

"You need rest." He said, still frowning at her.

She rolled her eyes. "I'm fine." She didn't even feel tired anymore.

Loki nodded though she could tell he didn't believe her. "Let me see your ankle." He commanded. She obliged, shifting her leg out from under the thin sheets and blankets. He'd managed to bandage it somehow and she thought about him doing it while she slept. He must have been the one who put her into the bed. That was just so weird she couldn't even fathom it.

He sat at the bottom of the bed, Darcy's lack of height meaning there was easily enough room for him. He expertly unwrapped the bandages and too late

Darcy realised she should have averted her eyes. Her ankle was swollen and purple. She almost gagged.

Loki looked dejectedly at the strips of fabric which she realised were torn off of the bed sheet. They both knew it wasn't enough. She needed a cast, not bandages.

He looked up at her and smiled reassuringly. "It is healing well."

She sent him a disbelieving look. "Liar." She said.

He ignored her and wrapped it back up with fresh sheet strips.

"How do you know so much about it?" She asked, watching his hands move gingerly across her ankle.

"Wounds?" He asked. "My mother taught me basic war field healing. She is far better at it, I excelled more at illusions."

Darcy smiled, it was nice hearing him talk about his mother. Nice to know he actually cared for someone. Then a sudden thought occurred to her. "And how come you don't have a bruised ankle?"

"Evidently it healed faster." He replied quickly.

"Oh okay." She said before looking round the room, anywhere but at him because she generally believed that people who looked good with damp hair weren't to be trusted and damn he was living up to the title of the God of Lies on that front. "Are we in a motel?" She asked.

Loki shrugged. "An inn of some sort."

"Okay...why?" Darcy asked curiously.

"As we do not know where we are there was no point walking aimlessly in the hope that we found SHIELD." Darcy had to agree.

"And you just...walked up to the front desk and asked for a key?" As if the idea of Loki doing that wasn't funny enough, his clothes and her limp body made it down right ridiculous.

He shook his head with a slight smile. "I took a key."

"Thievery?" She asked. "I feel like I shouldn't condone but it's better than world domination so go you! Progress!"

Loki raised an eyebrow. "Well that all depends on where you're standing."

Darcy laughed and fell back against the pillow. "I really don't get you. You try to take over the world and then you seem perfectly fine imprisoned on Earth."

"I do well at adapting." Loki said with a slight tone of amusement as though he'd made some joke only he would understand.

"Adapting?" She repeated. "Yeah right. You're up to something, what is it?"

He finished wrapping her ankle and stood up so that he was looking down at her. "Now that you ask me you expect me to answer?" He asked slightly bitterly.  
She felt a slight twinge of guilt. "What do you mean?"

"Your act of friendship." Loki told her cooly.

"Oh uh...you knew about that?" She asked, a leaden feeling in her stomach.

He smiled at her condescendingly, a slight curl in his lip. "Believe me, I recognise lies."

"Yeah well I guess you're familiar with them." She said jokingly. It was only when she saw his smile slip away that she realised her statement, referring to his being the God of them, could be interpreted in another way. Namely, in the secrets kept from him by a certain All-Father. "I didn't mean..." She started, unsure how to finish.

_Nice one, Darcy_, she thought. Maybe one day she would be able to control what came out of her mouth.

Loki had gone silent. She could almost feel him pulling away from her. It felt like she'd just kicked a puppy or something.

"Loki," She said gently, his head snapped to her, his eyes glaring. Okay not quite a puppy. "It's true, I was acting but that was like a month ago. I couldn't act for that long. And I'm sorry I ever tried."

His face remained impassive. She felt her guilt ebb away, she would not deal with him sulking. As though he'd read her mind, his face softened and he looked away.

"I do not know where we are." He said finally, inflecting boredom into each syllable.

Darcy nodded slowly. "I'll find out." She said. "Just...can you tell me what happened? Please?"

He watched her intently for a few moments, probably shocked that she was being polite about it. She felt a bit bad, she _had_ bombarded him with a lot of questions recently. He deserved them of course but perhaps there may have been a slight chance that shouting at him wasn't the best way to get answers.

Loki sighed. "What do you want to know?" He asked after a few moments.

"How did you know who those people were?" She asked, the question that had been on her mind the most escaping from her lips before she could think of a more important one. She propped herself up on her elbows so that she could watch him pace.

He scratched the back of his neck in frustration before clasping his hands behind his back.

"I received a certain...message." He said at last, his voice gaining the silky smooth quality she tended to associate with him hiding something.

She glared at him, very unimpressed. "Uh huh." She said. "And?"

"The person who sent it was responsible for the attack." Loki answered.

"And what did the message say?" She asked.

Loki didn't answer immediately. "Tell me the truth, Frost Brain. All of it." He raised an eyebrow. "Umm please?" She tried, she wasn't the best at this politeness thing.

The corners of his lips twitched like he was trying not to smile. Darcy was glad he didn't, a smile of endearment from him would probably have distracted her from further questions. Why couldn't he be an ugly God?

"That would be unwise." He replied.

"I don't care." She answered. "Just stop with the secrets."

"Secrets are knowledge." He told her. "And knowledge is power."

"And debating the nature of knowledge is one way to avoid sharing it." She retorted. This time he did smile, as though she'd impressed him and she felt a small trill of pride go through her. Even she was shocked. Maybe she was spending too much time with Jane.

"They were threats." He said, wiping away her smirk. "That is all I will say on the content."

Darcy's mouth gaped open and she felt goosebumps go up her skin. For a moment, she was unashamedly selfish. If someone had been threatening Loki then weren't they threatening her too what with the magical link? She cast around through the thousands of questions running through her brain. "How did they get you a message?" She asked, imagining some dark clothed villain trying to fly paper aeroplanes through Loki's window.

"Telepathically." He answered.

Telepathically? What the hell? So this person either had powers, not so unusual given the people SHIELD worked with but surprising nonetheless, or they weren't human. And if it was another Asgardian would Loki be able to protect them both? She'd kind of assumed that the only one that could hurt her was Loki given that he'd protect her from anyone else. She gulped silently. He was staring at her and she raised her head to meet his eyes. They both understood the danger then.

"You got a message." She said, something clicking into place in her mind. "That night that you went all funny and we collapsed."

Loki hesitated in his pacing and nodded. He clearly hadn't expected her to work that out. She felt a satisfied smile pull at her lips.

"So that's why you used magic?" She asked. "That's why I was unconscious for three weeks?"

"Yes."

"Then what did you do?" She asked desperately, sitting fully up to ask him, her eyes bearing into his. "What could you _possibly _do?"

"That knowledge is best kept secret." He answered.

"Oh my God, Loki!" She sighed in exasperation. "Secrets aren't good! Believe me, I work at SHIELD! I see what they do to people!"

"Knowledge is also dangerous." He told her firmly. "At this point I am protecting you."

"I didn't ask to be protected."

Loki smirked. Her hand itched to slap it off of his face. "Well then you should be thanking me for doing it anyway."

She clung to her anger, not letting herself feel amused or pitiful or whatever other unexplainable emotions she might have felt. Anger was safe and understandable. "I am currently in a motel in the middle of nowhere after being in a terrorist attack." She spat. "Where exactly in all of this am I protected?"

He leant against the wall, slowly. He seemed to be doing it just to infuriate her. She wanted quick exchanges and raised voices. He was giving her lethargy and calmness.

_Why did every other conversation they had end in an argument?_ She thought, exasperated.

"You have to trust me." He answered smoothly.

There it was again. That word. Trust.

There was a list of people who Darcy trusted explicitly.

The List: 1. Jane

That was it. And even then it came with conditions. She did not, for instance, trust Jane to tell her the truth. She did trust that if Jane lied to her, however, it was for a good reason.

Loki she did not trust. Not to tell her the truth. Not to have good reasons. Not to even be himself seeming as he alternated between hilarious and friendly...to her at least, and vicious and hurtful.

Did she trust him with her life? Darcy thought about how stupidly easy it had all seemed in TV shows. You become friends with someone and they trust each other. Sometimes they would trust a complete stranger because they had an unexplainable connection.

But there were so many details. She trusted Loki to protect her from people. That was true. But it was more that she trusted him to protect himself. She was under no delusions, she told herself. If the magic left her then he'd use her as a human shield, and that was even if they didn't just out right kill her.

It was too complicated, she decided. She would just go for not trusting him and take it from there.

_No_, she thought. "Fine." She said.

He nodded, his eyes flicking down in relief. Darcy couldn't help finding it adorable, he was so stoic around everyone else that it was kind of remarkable seeing him with any emotion on his face. When she did it was normally pain, this made a nice change.

At the same time, however, a more important thought was brought to the front of her mind. She was lying to the God of lies. And he hadn't even noticed.

* * *

Chapter title from Canterbury's Heavy In The Day. Thanks for reading and reviews.


	16. Chapter 16: Control The Audience

With each step, Darcy felt like shards of glass were shooting from her ankle through her body, slicing up her spine and leaving her in agony. Maybe Loki was wrong and her ankle had broken because it definitely felt like the fragments were cutting away at her.

She gritted her teeth in determination. Loki was watching, hidden and she wouldn't let him see that he was right. He'd all but begged her not to do this but she'd pointed out that the man at reception was rather unlikely to be working for a terrorist organisation. Of course she then had to put up with him sulking but he was moody enough as it was that that really just meant extra pouts.

Darcy smiled up at the guy behind the counter. He was in his early twenties, about her own age, but he still had a face full of acne and stringy blond hair that fell in a tangled knot across his head.

"Hi." She said, as she reached the counter. She leant against the desk to take some of the weight off of her ankle and waited for the room to stop spinning.

The guy looked at her, his mouth gaping open slightly and his eyes falling to her breasts. Darcy refrained from rolling her eyes. Boys were idiots. Did they really think she couldn't see them ogling her? She wanted to punch him but decided his stupid idiocy would probably help her.

"My car's broken down." Darcy told him in what she hoped was a convincing way. God, she hated lying. And wow was she bad at it, even she was aware of the flicking down of her eyes at the end.

Then again, she'd lied to Loki, she remembered proudly.

"Oh no." The guy said, eyes not lifting from her chest. Okay so he might be slightly easier to lie to than she'd been expecting.

"Yeah," Darcy said, clearly this dude was lacking in the brain department. "I was just wondering where the nearest town would be?"

The guy scratched his pimply chin and finally looked up at her. "It's about a half hour's drive." He said. "I live there myself."

_Great_, she thought, _thanks for that information I didn't care about. _

"Wow," She said, trying to sound interested. She could visualise Loki's smirk. He would know just what she was thinking. The dick.

"I finish my shift in about an hour, I could give you a lift." He offered. She almost laughed, of course she would get into a car with a random stranger who'd done nothing but leer at her.

"You have a car?" She asked, smiling at him. He pulled the keys out of his pocket. The sight of them gave her an idea.

"Yeah, she isn't anything pretty but she works." He said. Darcy nodded with a smile while internally questioning whether she'd ever met anyone who referred to their car as a "she" who wasn't a total douchebag.

"Do you know much about cars then?" She asked.

He shrugged. "I know a bit."

"I don't suppose you'd mind having a look at mine?" She asked.

He shrugged again. "Sure, just show me where it is."

"Actually," She said, hugging her arms. "Do you mind if I stay here? It's reeeaaally cold out there." Her voice had gone kind of high pitched but he didn't seem to notice anything.

He grinned at her, his eyes leering at her boobs again. "Sure thing, honey."

She smiled. "Thanks."

She watched as he left the front door. The moment he did so she ran behind the desk, ignoring the pain in her foot.

Loki materialised in front of her. Well he walked but she was too busy rifling through the drawers to notice.

"That performance was pitiful." He said.

"Yeah well that boy was stupid." She answered. She located a business card for the motel and shoved it in her pocket. Darcy hit the button on the cash register and started piling the cash into her pocket as well. "Besides," She told him. "Slight change of plans."

He raised an eyebrow at her curiously. She tried not to think about the fact that he looked very attractive when he did that.

Before she could explain, however, the door opened and she only had time to jump back round to the other side of the desk before the receptionist came back in.

"I couldn't find- who're you?" He asked, looking at Loki with an expression of nervousness. Loki didn't exactly dress normally but people tended to find him too scary to laugh at. Except for Darcy. And Jane now, of course. And the avengers. She stopped her list. Okay so _normal _people found him scary.

Loki looked at Darcy, his expression clear. "Should I kill him?" It read.

She narrowed her eyes slightly in a "no!" before returning to the receptionist. "This is my friend." She said bluntly, hands on her hips as she gave up the pretence of innocence she'd had while putting up with him. Her right hand inched subtly towards her pocket.

The guy was walking back to his desk now which was good because Darcy didn't want to walk to meet him with her ankle in its current state.

"Well I couldn't find your car." The guy said. He was level with her now.

"Oh sorry." She said, pulling the taser from her pocket and digging it into his side.

The guy hit the floor in under a second and Darcy pulled her taser off. She missed her one which she could use at a distance but she supposed she couldn't be too picky with stolen weapons. She'd used up one of the charges, though. It only had one left. She placed it back in her pocket before crouching down to get his keys from his pocket.

She realised that maybe she ought to have felt guilty for that but he was only unconscious, he'd be fine. And if she hadn't felt guilty for tasing Thor, she wasn't going to feel guilty about tasing some jerk who saw her as a walking pair of boobs.

When she stood back up, Loki was staring at her.

"What?" She snapped. She didn't like the way he was looking at her.

He raised his eyebrows and frowned. "Impressive." He stated.

She felt her lips twitch towards a smile and kept hem consciously kept at a thin line. "Yeah well help me to his car." She said. "I am not walking anymore on this ankle."

Loki nodded, the ghost of a grin on his face as he picked her up. She felt more comfortable in his arms this time, less like an irritating child. It was only then that

Darcy could truly appreciate what it meant that he'd told her about the threats. He trusted her. Kind of. He wasn't questioning her about the car or anything.

She clutched the keys in her hand as they left the warmth of the motel into the bitter cold of the outside. It was the kind of light morning that came only from the fact that a thick layer of snow now coated the ground. It must have continued while she slept. Loki walked her to the car park to the right of the motel where a few cars were parked.

Darcy pressed the button on the key and a battered, red car in the corner beeped. She shared a look of disappointment with Loki before he walked them over. She supposed the tiny vehicle was a bit of a step down from the black SUVs of SHIELD.

Loki opened the driver door and placed her inside the seat before getting in on the passenger side. It was only as she did her seat belt up and went to start the car that she saw the flaw in her plan.

"Uh." She said uncomfortably, placing the keys into the ignition.

"Problem?" He asked curtly, turning to her in his seat.

_I can't drive with this ankle_, She thought. But there were two alternatives. Either they faced the cold or Loki drove. She wasn't sure which idea terrified her more.

"No." She answered firmly. "I just remembered this." She dug into her pocket and found the business card for the motel. It was so faded it looked like it was printed in 1980. Despite that, an address was just legible.

She put the card down. "We're in Oregon." She told him, letting that thought settle with her. She was from Connecticut. She couldn't really get much further from home without leaving America. "Portland then. That's our best place to reach SHIELD."

Loki nodded blankly. Evidently the words meant nothing to him.

She started the car.

Expecting warm air to greet her, she was thoroughly disappointed to find that the heater was broken. Her skin was still covered in goose bumps from the cold. She looked round desperately and saw a coat lying on the back seat. It was a man's but it was below freezing and she wasn't bracing the cold in just her jumper. At least it was clean she thought as she shrugged it on, she'd been expecting some smell of cheap cologne.

Now she knew that driving with one foot was probably one of the most stupid things she'd ever done, right up there with taking the internship with Jane, but Darcy Lewis wasn't really one for caring about danger. She laughed as she drove, the jerky movements of her feet on the already old car throwing them both backwards and forwards in their seats.

She managed to sneak a glance at Loki from the corner of her eye whose face had paled, something she didn't think possible, and was warily holding onto the side of the car. She couldn't help but laugh at his expression.

She saw him turn to look at her. "You are going to get us killed." He stated bluntly. He didn't sound like he particularly cared whether that happened or not.

"If you can handle Jane's driving then you'll be fine with mine." She answered though she wasn't so sure herself. Sure Jane had hit a guy...twice... but at least she had control of the brake and clutch at the same time.

After an hour though she'd managed to get a hang of it and their driving went a little more smoothly. Loki didn't say anything else and she thought maybe he might have been sleeping but when her eyes flicked over he was just staring thoughtfully out of the window.

The sun was rising now, washing him in a kind of orangish glow. It looked nice. Like really nice. He was most attractive like that, she decided, when he was lost in thought. There was a kind of calmness to it rather than his usual shrewd calculating expressions and sneers. That combined with the way his jaw jutted down to look out the window, enhancing his already sharp cheekbones...she snapped her heads back to the road, she'd almost forgotten she was driving and had been veering off into the ditch.

_No, _she told herself firmly.

What she had with Loki didn't make sense. They were friends and that was weird enough given that her Loki was someone entirely different to the one everyone else saw. She did not need to add any romantic attraction to that and if there was one thing that Darcy knew well it was that drooling over someone's cheekbones was not a great start to a platonic friendship.

_Stupid Asgardian Gods_, she thought bitterly.

There were more cars on the road now as well, given that sunrise in December meant it was about eight in the morning.

Darcy liked Oregon. The green fields and mountains they were passing were a lot prettier than the barren deserts of New Mexico.

Still she could not help but feel out of place. This was unfamiliar. She'd never been here and she didn't fit in. At least in California or New York she could find a shoe store and be in her natural habitat. Green fields, as pretty as they were, weren't really cutting it.

After a few hours her mind had begin to wander. What would they actually do when they reached Portland? How did you get the attention of SHIELD without attracting attention from unwanted third parties?

Her stomach churned unpleasantly. She didn't want to admit it but she was kind of scared. It was perfectly reasonable of course but she was so used to being surrounded by people who were immune to fear that she felt weak for her nervousness.

But those people were fear free because they could protect themselves. Darcy...well she only had one charge left on her taser. She decided she had to ask him.

"Loki?" Darcy asked after they'd been in the car a few hours.

"Yes?" He asked.

"When SHIELD exploded..." She started, not really knowing how to voice the question and focusing on driving so that she didn't let too much emotion into it. She didn't want to sound too worried despite the fact that she felt sick whenever she thought of it. "When those people reached us...one of them said 'give us the girl.'"

Loki didn't say anything. Her eyes flicked to him and she saw that he had his 'I am betraying no emotion' look that he had when she'd said something hurtful or that he didn't want to talk about.

"Do you know why?" She added.

Loki took a deep breath. "No."

"Look," She said wearily. "I'm really tired of arguing with you. Just this once can you not be an asshole and tell me the truth?"

"This is the truth." He said and she saw him turn and look at her out of the corner of her eye. "I do not know why they said that."

She was inclined to believe him but given her resolution to no trust him she merely gave him a terse nod and wondered why, if he did know why they wanted her, he would keep it a secret.

His eyes lingered for a few moments on her and she could tell he was calculating whether or not she believed his answer. She felt her heartbeat speed up slightly under his gaze. _Stop looking at me_, she wanted to snap, feeling slightly self conscious. Instead she focused on maintaining her passive look of concentration and not blushing.

At last he looked away and they fell back to silence.

She had to stop for gas at one point, using up the majority of the money she'd stolen from the motel and spending the last bits of change on coffee for her and Loki.

She felt like maybe this plan would work out. She and Loki could just drive to Portland, contact SHIELD somehow and have them retrieve them and take them some place far away from any threats.

That was until she saw the black SUV turn off the same junction as her. She realised she'd been seeing it in her mirror for far too long.

"Loki," She said, her voice firm with forced calmness though the panic lifting the pitch slightly. He sat up in his seat and turned to her, sensing the urgency in her voice. "We're being followed."

* * *

Chapter title from Jimmy Eat World's Action Needs an Audience. Bit of a short filler chapter, I apologise. I was going to add some more but honestly I think it works better as part of the next chapter. I have coursework and mocks over the next few weeks so updates may be a bit further apart but I shall endeavour to not make you wait too long, and given that it's me I'll probably choose fanfiction over revision anyway.

Thanks for the reviews.


	17. Chapter 17: Thought The Lions Were Bad

"Ahh yes," He said, leaning back in the chair again. "I was wondering when you might notice."

"What?!" She asked, managing to keep her voice down though knowing if she got any higher only dogs would be able to hear it. She was certain if she'd had two working feet she would have slammed the breaks but her foot instead pressed the accelerator, jolting them forwards and causing the engine to rev.

"They've been following us for about half an hour." He said bluntly.

"Dude!" She scolded. "If you see a car following us after people blow up SHIELD to get to us, then you fricking say something!" She would have pulled over to shout at him were it not for the whole 'car full of people trying to kill us following us' thing. Of course they could be SHIELD agents but given Darcy's luck she highly doubted it.

"I wanted to see how you would react." He answered calmly, staring out of the window as though none of this bothered him.

"I'm going to react by strangling you!" She muttered under her breath. She clenched her teeth but forced herself to focus. She could throttle Loki later; there were more pressing matters at hand.

"You might want to do something about the people following us first." He said as though he'd read her mind. _Wait_, she thought, _could he read minds? Shit what if he'd heard all that stuff about him being hot? Shit if he hadn't then he'd hear it now. Don't think about sex. Don't think about sex. Shit.  
_

_Darcy_, she told herself firmly, being only slightly aware that normal people didn't tend to talk to themselves in their thoughts. _He can't read minds. And even if he can it is a problem you can deal with later._

She inhaled deeply. _Focus_.

They were coming up for a crossroads and she frantically tried to remember everything she could from car chases in films. She signalled to turn right but as soon as she reached it she swung the steering wheel to the left, receiving several angry beeps from other drivers and causing her and Loki's seatbelts to pull tight as they were whipped round.

"I'm going to try to lose them." She explained, cursing as she saw the SUV still behind her. "Think I can?"

"I doubt it. There are three cars."

"What?!" She snapped for the second time. "There's only one SUV!"

"Yes and there is a blue car and a white...I do not know the name for it, a larger vehicle...that have also been following us."

Darcy checked the mirror and saw that he was right, a white van and a navy sedan also seemed too familiar, just not as obvious as the SUV.

"Any other information I should know?" She asked through gritted teeth, annoyed that he hadn't volunteered his knowledge earlier.

"We will not make it to this Land of Port." Loki replied, inflecting his voice with fake innocence.

"You are such an asshat." Darcy mumbled, realising she was driving in circles. "Right okay, we won't make it to Portland because the blue car is now in front of me and the van is trying to get to my right so they're blocking us off. I think I know what I'm going to do."

"Then do enlighten me." He said, sounding bored.

There were few cars on the road and she could see a big empty parking lot looming on her right, one that she'd been following signs for since she saw the cars. She really, _really_ hoped this plan worked.

"I'm going to let you handle it." She said as she turned into it. She parked the car at the very end so that it was one less direction they could attack from.

Within seconds the three cars that had been following them were on the road and turning into the parking lot.

Loki quirked his eyebrows appreciatively and grinned. "Wise choice. Get out of the car."

She felt her mouth gape open slightly as he managed to get from his seat, out his door, round the car and to open her door in under a second.

"How did you-"

"Is now really the time?" He asked, offering her his hand. She took it and let him pull her out. She felt her stomach turn to jelly as she saw their attackers emerge. There had to be at least twenty of them. Loki's hand stayed steady though, his arm around her shoulders like they were enjoying a nice stroll through the park.

"Are you sure you can't just teleport us out of here again?"

"I'm afraid it would be...too difficult." He said bitterly. She felt slightly sorry for him but the reminder he was low on magic was not exactly reassuring.

He looked down with slight concern at her ankle.

"I'm fine." She said, letting go of his hand and removing his arm forcefully so that she could lean back against the car. He threw her one last concerned look before turning round to face the approaching group who were forming a jagged semi circle around them.

She saw a brief flicker of doubt in Loki's eyes, his lips momentarily twitching into a frown before he turned fully enough that his back to her. Her stomach dropped and she felt adrenaline race through her.

Maybe she was wrong. She'd been confident with this plan because...well because she had a God on her side. He'd been worthy of fighting all of the avengers at once and he'd only just lost. But that was before he had the treatment of Odin and his memories of magic snatched and the doubt that showed on his face was currently making her heart race.

Her hands started to shake and she curled them into fists. _Get a grip_, she told herself.

Loki stood in front of her, as though shielding her from their view. She'd known he was tall, of course but only now did she truly come to appreciate the near foot in height difference between them. It made her feel safe. Protected.

She'd expected some kind of conversation. Wasn't that what they did in the movies? But their attackers were too well organised. She saw the glint of silver as Loki slipped the dagger into his hand.

Her heart pounded loudly, so loudly she felt certain they could hear it. She wanted to run and curl into a ball at once.

The first person sprang at Loki, their black clothed figure running towards him. Loki span faster than she thought was actually possibly, dodging the attack with ease and skewering the guy with the dagger. He pulled it out forcefully, blood dripping from its blade and flung the limp body to the ground as more people rushed in.

It was mesmerising in a sick kind of perverted way, Loki span and dodged like he'd had a millennia of practice. He was a swirl of leather and green as he moved away from her in his attempt to evade the attackers.

After Loki had killed three of them (Darcy tried not to think _too_ much about this as she cowered against the car) they decided they could risk shooting him.

Loki managed to throw up force fields to deflect the bullets but each one drained him, she could see it in the sweat beading on his forehead and in his slightly slumped shoulders. He was losing. There were too many of them.

"Run!" He screamed at her, panicked as he continued to jab and duck. He may have been a God fighting mortals but he was a God without power. Or much of it anyway.

"I can't!" She screamed back. Had he forgotten about how she'd kill them both if she tried to get away from him? Or about her ankle?

She heard footsteps to her left and turned to see one of them making their way towards her. The roaring in her ears had been too loud and they were too close. She stumbled away, her fingers clutching desperately at the side of the car for some kind of handhold. Finding nothing she felt herself fall to the ground though the adrenaline running through her stopped her from feeling any pain.

"Come with me." The person said, they were male, their voice commanding. It wasn't a question. She scrambled on the rough gritted floor to find a way out; her finger nails breaking in the process. She managed to inch away slightly. Her ankle didn't even hurt anymore, the progressive ache gone.

_I'm going to die,_ She thought, but he wasn't even pointing a gun at her. Terror seized her, gripping her throat until she could barely breathe, raw like sandpaper it scraped against every inch of her as the man closed in on her. Her muscles clenched in fear.

Because if they'd wanted her dead they would have shot her. And she wasn't wanted because she could give something to them. She finally understood and the clear truth of it all was more terrifying than her situation. It wasn't like she could offer them anything other than her attachment to Loki. Her imagination ran wild, imagining every possible form of torture they could have lined up for her in the knowledge the Asgardian Prince would feel it too.

And even worse than her fear for herself was the knowledge that if she got caught it was all over for Loki too.

The man had reached her, his hand clutched at her arm like talons, tearing into her skin. Instinctively she yanked it away. She could see his eyes through the slit in his mask, narrowed in fury. She marvelled for a moment that her self defence class had actually worked but her mind was fuzzy, her panic stopping her from thinking of anything else she'd learnt. He made a rough grab for her again, catching her awkwardly under her arm. She grappled for her taser. He laughed, pulling her backwards towards their van.

He must have thought she was just pointlessly struggling, she realised, shoving her taser into the exposed skin of his hand. She managed to push him away from her as he fell so that he didn't take her with him and she realised she was standing, weight distributed evenly on both feet and she didn't feel a thing other than a slight stiffness.

_Wow! This adrenaline stuff is amazing!_ She thought giddily her heart still racing.

She glanced over at Loki who was still fighting a load of soldiers, his responses slowing, becoming sloppier. He looked exhausted she thought, unsteady on his feet. Like the footage she'd seen of him after he came through the tesseract.

Her elation at having tasered the guy who'd attacked her fled as her panic returned. Loki couldn't possibly fight all those people at once. Not in his current state.

She bent over the soldier she'd knocked out. He had to have something that could help. Another taser would have been nice, seeming as her one was out of juice.

Her fingers trailed inside the silken pockets in her frantic search until they closed around a gun.

She pulled it out slowly. This wasn't like her one time of practicing. This was real. Did she really have what it took?

Loki had his back to her as he desperately fought the best soldier who'd somehow managed to remain fighting him the entire time, discernible only by the fact he was almost as tall as Loki.

But there was another guy behind him who was raising a pistol.

Darcy squared her feet and aimed, Loki's voice in her head telling her to aim higher. Without thinking, she squeezed the trigger.

It was too easy, she thought, that such a slight movement of her finger could cause the man to fall. She'd been aiming for his back but as she saw the red of his blood splatter from the wound in his neck she realised it didn't make much difference. A bullet was a bullet.

Loki's dagger entered the side of the person he was fighting and he span as though sensing someone behind him in time to see the man she'd just shot fall.

He looked around taking deep, heavy breaths. They were the only ones left, in the middle of a parking lot and surrounded by dead bodies.

She looked at him and his eyes found hers. Darcy started trembling, the gun falling out of her limp hands.

Loki was in front of her in a second, concern etched across his face.

"What's wrong?" He asked, desperately, clutching at her hands, his own feeling cold as ice. "Are you hurt?"

Darcy opened her mouth to reply and instead burst into tears. Loki pulled her to him, encircling her tiny body in his arms. She was shaking but he held her close, whispering soothing words in her ear which she couldn't quite understand.

She knew she was being ridiculous but she couldn't stop shaking and her heart was racing. Later she would find out at that she'd gone into shock. At the time she just felt pathetic, the thought only causing her to cry even more.

She didn't know how much longer it was, it could have been seconds or minutes but she managed to stop shaking. She curled herself into Loki nonetheless, enveloping herself in his comforting smell of leather and sweat and now the smell of cheap soap from the motel.

Inside his arms she was safe. She didn't have to think about what she did. _Oh God what she did.  
_

She pulled away though he kept his arms around her, looking down at her with concern.

"I...I killed someone." She stated. There. She'd said it. It seemed ridiculous, saying it to someone who'd killed so many but he didn't laugh at her or point to the eighteen bodies he was responsible for. Instead he just nodded, understandingly.

"I know," He said gently, a tone she didn't think he was capable of. "but I would not have been able to stop them, a bullet for me would have meant one for you too. You had no other option, it was self defence."

"That doesn't make it right!" She protested, pushing his chest so that he let go. She took a few angry steps back. "I can't just excuse killing someone because they were trying to kill me!"

"And the alternative?" He demanded.

"I..." She trailed, her hands reaching to her face as she found herself nervously pacing. "I still killed someone, Loki. I can't...make that go away by saying I had no other choice. Don't you understand that?"

"I may have survived the bullet." He stated. "You would not. You wish for me to blame you for sparing me the pain of seeing your corpse on the ground?"

She looked at him, startled. "What do you care? You'd be free the burden of being bound to me."

He sheathed the dagger back in his pocket. "You believe I see you as a burden?" He attempted a smile. "Darcy, you may talk incessantly but I would not say that it was enough to be a burden. A nuisance perhaps..."

She rolled her eyes. God that jerk was annoying, though she found herself smiling slightly. He cared enough to not want her dead. How sweet. "I still killed someone." She said, unable to get it off her mind. "They probably had a family. Or a pet. Oh God what if they had a puppy?"

Loki shook his head slowly in exasperation. "You know, you are right. You killed someone. What makes you and I so different? One person, a thousand? You are tainted. You look down upon myself and yet you kill just like I."

"Hey!" She protested because being compared to him was a little too far. "That's not fair! I didn't do it out of some perverted sense of entitlement! I did it because he was trying to kill me and I shouldn't be blamed..." She narrowed her eyes at him, realising what he'd done. He smirked mischievously, amusement sparkling in his eyes. "I hate you." She said.

He laughed. It felt oddly soothing as it floated over her. She would happily drown in that laugh right now.

"No. No, I hate you." She said before laughing too and clearing the tear streaks from her cheek. She wanted to hug him again, just for comfort but figured that might be pushing her luck.

"You do not hate me." He said smiling.

"No." She said, sadly agreeing. "But I should. God only knows why I don't."

He smirked, she recognised it as his self mocking grin and felt her stomach clench. She realised she didn't quite like it when he made fun of his own situation. She supposed it was nice that he wasn't taking himself too seriously but still, the pain behind the statements was always there, not in his voice or what he said but...there.

Hell, she'd been spending too much time with him.

"You are not the only one questioning the friendship."

"So we're friends?" She asked with a smile. He ignored her. "Oh go on Frost Brain," She teased. "say we're friends."

He smiled wearily and she noticed fully how exhausted he looked. His pale skin looked downright pallid, his hair was plastered to his head and he looked like he could barely keep his eyes open. Just how much had the battle cost him?

_The battle_. Darcy became suddenly aware that they were standing, making jokes while surrounded by bodies. Vivid red blood splattered the snow around her, looking brighter than blood was supposed to against the clean white flakes. She felt a chill fall over her. That was sick.

"We should go." She said, her voice falling to a cold seriousness she did not think herself capable of.

Loki nodded in agreement. "The car will not work, they will have ensured we had no escape."

"We could take one of theirs?" Darcy suggested, throwing a sceptical look at their cars. On the inside they looked pretty hi-tech.

"No." Loki said. "They could track us. We will have to go on foot."

Darcy nodded and worked in silence with Loki to find a path. They had to follow the road to Portland but they didn't want to be too close to it. They decided in the end to walk along the furthest edge of the fields surrounding the highway. The snow was thick there, it had apparently continued through the night and now that she wasn't in fear for her life she felt the chill cut through her.

Darcy was too busy wondering at how she was still able to walk, after all, the affects of the adrenaline ought to have slowed now, that she didn't see Loki lose his balance and stumble the first time.

The second, she looked up to see him lose his balance and trip forwards a few steps. She opened her mouth to make a sarcastic remark on his elegance but stopped when she saw the strain on his face.

"Loki?" She asked uncertainly instead. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Fine." He gasped before collapsing.

* * *

Chapter title from Bastille's Daniel In The Den. I kind of wanted to post this chapter just because it was really fun to write but I don't know if I'll be able to update again this week, if I do it'll likely be Sunday. Thanks for the reviews.


	18. Chapter 18: Where My Demons Hide

Darcy wished that she could say she crouched elegantly by him, clasping his hand in hers. When she whispered his name, his eyes would have flickered open and met hers, already a smile to be seen in them before his lips began to twitch into a grin so blindingly beautiful it would make her heart go all fuzzy.

After all, wasn't that what was supposed to happen when you have a gorgeous guy faint next to you?

Instead, Darcy swore very loudly and leant next to him desperately, panic already returning as she poked him in the cheek.

"Loki!" She said loudly. "Loki?"

No response. Her fingers searched along his neck and she tried not to think about the last time she'd looked for his pulse, before she knew him and when his beaten form lay at the entrance to SHIELD.

She sighed in relief when she felt the quick flutter of his heart beating beneath her finger tips. She leant back on her feet and forced herself to take a few steady breaths.

He was alive, she reminded herself. No immediate worries, of course she was pretty screwed if they were attacked again but she _was_ in the middle of a field. She assumed she'd see them coming and then she would...what exactly? She grinned despite herself. She would beat them all up with her epic combat skills, she thought. Okay, so she would probably surrender...she mentally crossed her fingers hoping no one came.

No _immediate_ threats then. It didn't take her long to realise why he'd collapsed, he'd looked exhausted. He'd had no sleep last night from what she could tell and then he'd used magic despite not being able to properly. She kind of imagined Loki using magic as the equivalent of her attempting to run a marathon, she could run yes but not to that level and if she tried she'd get hurt. So Loki would just had to recover from mental strain or the Godly magical equivalent.

But that didn't answer why she hadn't collapsed. When Loki had last used magic she'd been knocked out for three weeks and this time she didn't even feel woozy? It made her head swim just thinking about it. For not the first time she wished she was Jane, she didn't really understand much of anything but Jane would.

_You're not Jane_, she told herself firmly, _wishing you were is not going to help you so why don't you try to actually think rather than just whining?_

Okay so she figured if she was out three weeks and he was out a few days last time...then he'd be out for less this time seeming as he'd been walking around for a bit afterwards rather than collapsing straight away, right? With luck he'd only need half a day's recovery.

Unfortunately, given their current situation they couldn't really afford to waste, well, any time.

Darcy looked down on him. He looked kind of peaceful, no hate or sneer on his face. No stoic expression of hidden emotions like he had when talking to her. Just...peaceful. Like he didn't have to keep secrets when he slept.

Darcy found herself smiling. He was such an idiot with his secrets. She knew he didn't think much of mortals, they were all just ants to him but he really had to stop underestimating her. He may have been an expert at lying but if so that was only because he did it so much. Her favourite moments were those when he forgot himself for a moment and a smile of genuine happiness spread across his face when he didn't have on the forefront of his mind the fact that he was supposed to despise all mortals.

She knew it was wrong but she liked that the only person he ever let his guard down for, even if it was just for a moment was her.

Thinking about it she found her fingers brushing gently against the smooth skin on his hands. She didn't want to wake him up when he looked like this.

His words rang in her head: explaining that he couldn't do magic, explaining the death threats and how he was trying to protect her. She knew the good majority of that was him not caring if she knew because she was mortal and most of the protection was covering his own back. But the fact that there was a small part, a very small part, that saw her as a friend whilst being nice was currently making her life very, very hard.

Darcy liked honesty. She liked clear boundaries and set roles. Matt was her friend. Adam had been her boyfriend. Jane was practically her sister. And Loki was what? Too many things all at once and none of them as well.

Oh God, she really didn't want to wake him up.

"Loki!" She shouted. He didn't budge. She shook his shoulder. Nothing.

She thought about it for a few minutes. The people looking for them would assume they had ran as far away as possible, they wouldn't expect them to be so close. Of course she could be wrong but the odds of Loki and her getting back to SHIELD were pretty low now anyway.

Darcy made up her mind to wait it out a few hours. It would probably be better to have a slightly more revived Loki on her side than an exhausted one. She just hoped she wouldn't freeze to death by then.

She sat by him and watched the wind ripple across the tall grass. It was mind numbingly boring and she found her thoughts wandering. She thought mainly of Jane. A heavy leaden feeling appeared in the pit of her stomach. She'd barely thought about her friend but the research facility had exploded and she'd been inside. Jan could have been hurt.

She picked at the grass. She had to trust that she hadn't. She'd been with Banner so the main problem would have been him hulking. No, she told herself, Jane had to be alive. She was Jane. And if...something had happened, she couldn't know. There was no point worrying. She had to prioritise. Focus on getting herself safe first which was pretty hard given that she was sat in a field in Oregon with an unconscious, magically exhausted God.

It was hard to tell time without a watch but she was pretty sure it was around midday now. The clouds were penetrated by a slight glow in roughly the centre which she took to be the sun.

No pain had returned in her ankle, despite her being calm by now. Well except for her various worrying. Curious, she pushed aside the sheets/bandages that were covering it. Gone was the hideous wound of before. The bruise was barely even yellow. Her eyes widened as she stared at it so she quickly pulled it back up, unable to understand what had happened.

She tried to think back to when she'd stopped feeling the pain. It was in the middle of the fight. What had happened?

Loki had told her to run...and she'd replied that she couldn't.

_No..._

He wouldn't.

No.

But the proof was before her. He'd been relatively fine with the force fields and fighting, it was after he'd said that that he'd become clumsier, more drained. No. She refused to accept it.

From behind her came a desperate gasp for breath. Loki scrambled up, panting heavily and staring around warily, his eyes eventually resting on Darcy.

She stood up too and glared at him. She ignored his weird, panicky way of waking up in favour of more important things.

"You idiot." She growled at him, fury spiking the words with venom.

He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"You absolute idiot!" Darcy screamed, hitting his arm.

Loki took a step back. "What have I done now?" He asked.

"You fixed my ankle?" She asked, screaming. "Are you that stupid?"

He looked at her in disbelief. "Excuse me?"

"You were in the middle of a fight, Loki! And you wasted your magic on fixing my stupid ankle? Do they not have brains on Asgard?" She shouted, unbelievably annoyed. Her blood felt hot as it raced through her veins.

"I healed your ankle so that you could escape." He told her pointedly.

"I couldn't have escaped. Or have you somehow managed to forget this magical connection you're always moaning about?" She reminded him while wondering what he was hiding, he wouldn't have actually forgotten that so what was he covering for? "You were just being stupid! And say I had managed to get away, they would have had you."

"Concerned for my safety?" He asked in a mocking tone.

Yes, she thought, though she wouldn't admit that. "Newsflash," She said condescendingly. "They torture you, they torture me too."

"I healed your ankle." He stated. "Shouldn't you be thanking me?"

"Thanking you?" She repeated scornfully. She turned away. This was pointless. He wouldn't see reason anyway. "That's the last thing on my mind. You just collapsed because you stupidly decided my ankle was more important than our survival. You're so lucky we escaped or they would be the least of your problems."

"Yes, you are truly terrifying." He said sarcastically.

She glared at him. "We need to go." She said tensely, deciding to drop the subject.

"Oh I wouldn't be so sure about that." A female voice said from behind them.

Darcy span round, the voice oddly familiar.

A tall woman stood about twenty feet away from them. She was slim with an athletic build and her straight black hair pulled into a ponytail. She was evidently from Asgard with a red and gold shirt worn under armour and red boots. Her sword was drawn and so too was her shield, she was pointing both at her and Loki.

"Sif!" Darcy greeted, trying to sound happy. She remembered the goddess from the time she'd come with the warriors three to rescue Thor. They hadn't spoken much but she seemed nice. Also terrifying in a way that only Natasha Romanoff could hope to emulate.

She was glaring at Loki with pure hatred. "Darcy." She nodded, eyes not moving from Loki. Darcy felt startled; Sif had actually remembered her name? Thor hadn't even learnt her surname and he'd lived with them. "Loki." She spat.

Loki's lip curled in disdain. "Sif." He said curtly. "To what do I owe the..._pleasure?_"

Sif's expression of hatred turned to one of anger. "You dare ask me such a question?" She fumed.

Loki looked around at the fields and rushing traffic before he smirked at her. "Well I assume you didn't come for the scenery."

"You defied the All-Father's commands." She snarled. "You evaded your punishment and-"

"I don't quite know about evaded." Loki interrupted. "Perhaps more cut short."

"So you admit that you did escape the dungeons!" Sif smirked as though she had caught him out.

Loki shrugged. "Of course. I'm merely stating that it was a reasonable action to take."

"It was not for you to decide your punishment was over." Sif said hostilely

Loki smiled. "It was not I who decided."

Sif glared at him. "Your lies and tricks will not save you." She pointed her sword at him. "I will drag you before the Allfather myself."

Darcy was pretty much terrified at this point but Loki just raised a sceptical eyebrow at Sif. "Really Sif?" He gave her a condescending smile. "So rash. Your skills were never a match for mine and you believe you can take me single-handedly back to Asgard? Tell me, who will tell Odin my location when you lie cold upon the ground a victim of your own foolishness."

Sif narrowed her eyes at him. "You think I would be so cowardly as to-"

"No Sif, I believe for once you might actually _think_ and see that the wiser choice would be to leave."

Sif pressed her lips together. "And why would you be so willing for me to return with an army?"

Loki smiled. "Well I'm not actually going to sit around and wait for you. I shall no doubt have left this rock when you leave but it is surely still better for you to report where I was than to...well to visit Valhalla a little prematurely?"

Sif sniffed. "I will die a warrior's death. With dignity. To fall to you would disgrace me."

"Then I suggest it's not worth the risk." Loki said. Darcy was fairly sure he was bluffing. His magic was gone and he'd just been unconscious but she found herself praying that Sif accepted the bluff.

"I will return." She stated. "With the might of Asgard behind me."

Loki gave a little smug smile that even Darcy wanted to slap off his face. "I look forward to it."

"Although, if I may ask, why Midgard?" She asked.

"I thought I might seek refuge where my brother fell." He answered.

Sif's eyes narrowed suspiciously at him before eventually moving to Darcy. "You aided him?"

Darcy, whose attention had been flicking between them like she was watching a tennis game, was on the verge of saying yes when she saw Loki imperceptibly shake his head. "Ye..No. A bit. Maybe. I didn't really have much choice."

Sif looked at her suspiciously. "What do you mean?"

Darcy was saved answering by Loki stepping forwards, grinning at Sif. "She is my insurance."

Sif snapped her head back to Loki. "What do you mean?"

Loki snorted. "I thought even you might be able to sense the enchantment."

"Which enchantment?" She growled.

"A binding charm."

Sif's fingers tapped the hilt of her sword. "You dared use a binding charm upon a mortal?"

Loki shrugged. Darcy felt a bit offended. It was one thing for Loki to sneer "mortal" at her, it was expected of him. With Loki, the fact he was even talking to you was a reminder that you weren't as unimportant as he made out. Sif however made her feel utterly worthless. It was only when she realised that Sif was probably referring more to how breakable mortals were and thus how foolish it would be to have a binding charm with one rather than how useless mortals were in general that Darcy began to feel a bit better.

"You are lucky I have orders to return." Sif hissed at him. "The Allfather has us scouring the nine realms. If you try to leave we will find you."

Loki rolled his eyes. "Yes yes I'm sure. Shouldn't you be off?"

Sif smiled at him menacingly. "I look forward to seeing you bound at the Allfather's feet."

One of his eyebrows rose sleekly. "An unusual fetish though I would expect nothing less from you."

Sif glared but at that moment a bolt of light hit her. She shimmered for a moment and Darcy stared transfixed as she disappeared. A rune was left scorched onto the ground where she had been standing.

Loki's face fell. "By the nine realms..." He muttered. His eyes locked onto her and he grabbed her hand. "We must go. Now."

"What?" Darcy asked but she ran anyway so that he didn't have to pull her along so much. She had to take three steps for every one of his.

Loki looked over his shoulder before back to her, grim determination on his face. "The charm upon us has prevented Heimdall from seeing us but he will now know we are. They will be able to find us again. With any luck my brother or mother will be able to intercept Sif but we must not count on that."

"Can't you just teleport us away?" Darcy panted. He was fast.

"No." He snapped. She glared at him.

"Just because you're having problems with your magic doesn't mean you can take it out on me." She told him, already irritable due to the stitch in her side.

"My magic is the only reason we are alive right now." He retorted.

Darcy shrugged. He had a point. "That and your fighting skills. You are pretty amazing with a dagger."

"I should hope so. My fa- The Allfather insisted I learnt how to handle a weapon. Illusions he saw as little help on the battlefield."

"Really?" Darcy asked, intrigued to hear more about the life he left even if he was telling ehr while making her run. "If you trained with a dagger then how come the chitauri gave you a sceptre?"

"Oddly my weapon of choice did not come up as they tortured me." He muttered. Darcy stopped.

"What?" She managed. Loki, who'd been pulled to a halt when she stopped turned ashen though his face itself remained expressionless.

"I..." Loki started. Darcy's eyes widened and she felt tears spring to them. The shock of what he'd said was bad enough, she couldn't really handle the fact that he so obviously hadn't meant to say it.

"They tortured you?" Darcy whispered, aghast. She was still holding his hand and gazing up at him with pity. All thoughts of the following Asgardians had fled from both of their minds.

Loki swallowed and looked away. "Yes." He said at last. "They needed me to retrieve the tesseract."

"So...all that stuff that happened last year?"

"Don't." He said softly. He'd shut his eyes. She could see beads of sweat glistening on his forehead.

"Loki, please." Darcy squeezed his hand.

"You wish for me to say that it was not my fault?" He asked, a sudden harshness to his voice. "No, the actions were mine. I admit had it been for myself I would have been more subtle. I would have kept the tesseract without letting the chitauri through. I would have perhaps been less afraid of failing..." He winced and opened his eyes, turning to look at her. "The parts that bother you? The loss of life? I am afraid I cannot say that I would have cared. You may rest assured that I am still the villain your kind see me to be."

"Loki..." Darcy said. She wanted to be sympathetic. And she was, the guy had been tortured even before Odin started his punishment? No wonder he brushed it aside like it was not big deal. She'd read the documents from the invasion, he'd been practically tortured to insanity and Odin had tried to just torture him back. Darcy just wanted to keep him away from them all.

But she still couldn't stand his whole "I'm the villain" thing. He kept talking as though he was a monster and had no choice in the matter which was complete and utter bullshit.

She'd never been at such a loss for words before.

Loki smirked. "You were so keen for me to tell you, were you not?"

"I...it's good that you told me." She said. "You shouldn't keep that kind of thing to yourself. I just...I really, really wish it weren't true."

Loki looked down. He seemed to be at just as large a loss for words as she was. She almost had to refrain from smiling, of all the people to have nothing to say it never would have been them...

She wondered whether anyone had ever told him that they were sorry for what happened. She assumed it was probably a lot of shouting at him for his actions. And obviously that was necessary too but dear God, under the circumstances they couldn't just leave it at that could they?

She thought back to his self hatred...his comments...fuck. His words rang in her mind: _Everyone kneels in the end_..._freedom is an illusion_...the way he'd winced when she said Chitauri...fuck. She really hadn't wanted to understand Loki. She really really hadn't.

Sympathy she could handle. Understanding...understanding was dangerous.

And worse yet was the thought that came unbidden into her mind that if she ever met any chitauri or the Allfather she'd probably kill them.

Her arms reached round Loki. He froze slightly, startled by her sudden affection but his arms awkwardly patted her back in response. She smiled against his chest. He'd hugged her earlier and seemed perfectly fine with it and now he was acting like a twelve year old boy who'd just discovered what girls were.

So calm and in control all the time except for when she surprised him.

He gave surprisingly good hugs, she thought.

Fuck, she thought again. She pulled away. She'd enjoyed that hug far too much.

"You really didn't deserve all that." She told him. It was a little sappy for her but she felt like she had to because she doubted anyone else ever had.

"Yes well..." He obviously hadn't expected that. He struggled to regain his composure. "I suggest we keep walking unless you wish for the Allfather to continue what he-"

"Oh my God!" Darcy shrieked, interrupting him. She started hitting his arm excitedly. "Look!"

He looked at her in confusion before turning to look at the plane that was flying in the sky behind him. It was large and black, definitely not your average airline.

"Is that a SHIELD logo?" She asked him excitedly.

"Darcy," He turned to her intently. He sounded rushed, did he not understand that they were safe? "There is something you must know."

"What?" She asked, slightly distracted by the fact the plane was landing right in front of them. Wheels unfurled from the plane as it aimed for the field in front of them.

"When we are taken back to SHIELD, they will probably-"

His words were drowned by the plane touching ground and rushing along the field. It screeched to a stop in front of them. No sooner had the plane stopped than a ramp was being lowered. A man in a suit stood silhouetted against the open doorway. But that was impossible.

The man walked forwards.

No. She was imagining it.

He removed his sunglasses and lifted his watch to his mouth.

"That's right, sir." He said speaking into it and looking at her and Loki with satisfaction. "We've got them."

* * *

Chapter title from Imagine Dragons' Demons (because that song is perfect for this fic). I know some of you won't like the whole torture thing but there's no way, in my opinion, that he couldn't have been from the state he was in when he came through the tesseract. Either way I probably won't mention it again. Thanks for the reviews and your patience in my updating.


	19. Chapter 19: Questions of Science

"Miss Lewis," Agent Coulson said, walking forwards down the ramp. "I believe you are supposed to be in New Mexico."

"And I believe you are supposed to be dead." Darcy replied, still unsure of whether he was actually standing in front of her or not.

Coulson smiled at her. "A little trick of Fury's to motivate the avengers." Two people came running out on either side of Coulson as his eyes moved to Loki.

Before Darcy knew what was happening, they were either side of him, one of them yanking his arms back and the other slapping a pair of handcuffs onto them.

Loki, to her surprise was making no attempt to resist them and instead had the bored look to his face that he normally had at SHIELD.

"Ward?" Darcy asked, her mouth gaping involuntarily as she recognised one of the people arresting Loki. The other was a woman with long dark hair wearing a leather SHIELD uniform.

The man's eyes flickered up briefly before returning to Loki whom having been firmly cuffed was being led forward, the two agents holding one of his arms each.

Darcy ran to keep up with them. "What the hell are you doing?" Darcy asked Coulson, gesturing to Loki.

"It's standard procedure." Coulson said, staring down his sunglasses at Loki. "I wish I could say it was a pleasure to see you again."

Loki looked at him questioningly. "Have we met?"

Darcy rolled her eyes. Of course he remembered Coulson. Stupid God of lies.

"Met isn't the word I would use." Coulson answered calmly. "You shish-kebabed me and I blasted you through a wall." Three more people had arrived in the doorway, all of them watching the confrontation.

Loki raised an eyebrow. "I'm afraid that's really not worth my remembering."

"Yeah well we'll see how you feel in a few hours." He turned to the people whose hands were clamped on either of Loki's arms. "Take him to the cells." The two agents led him into the plane, Ward glancing up briefly to meet the eyes of one of the standing women who gave him a nervous smile.

Darcy turned to Coulson. "Why are you arresting him?"

He took his sunglasses off before he answered, slipping the pair into his pocket. "Miss Lewis, the compound in New Mexico was attacked. Fourteen people died-"

"What?" Darcy interrupted, her heart skipping a beat.

"Don't worry. Miss Foster is fine." Relief flooded through her but it didn't stop her worrying about Matt or Adam or...well everyone really. "The attackers seemed to be searching for him," Coulson continued. "And he promptly disappeared. You understand that these are suspicious circumstances."

"But he didn't organise it!" Darcy replied, fighting to remain calm. "He just let us escape! If you need more proof of that you'll find about twenty of the attackers dead about half a mile that way."

She pointed down the field. Coulson followed her gaze and tapped a few buttons onto his watch. "I've called it in. Don't worry." He said reassuringly. "It's only a two hour flight to New Mexico. It's a very fast plane and the cells are quite comfortable, a lot more than he deserves."

Darcy scowled but didn't push the subject further. She didn't need more rumours flying over her attachment to Loki.

"Now come on board. We should probably get you checked over in the medical wing." He looked up at the crowd. "Fitzsimmons, would you show Miss Lewis the way please?"

She threw a quick glare at Coulson but walked up the ramp as two people stepped forwards.

"Yeah come on," A woman said. She was quite tall and had a pleasant English accent. It made her think of Loki though. _He is not your responsibility_ she told herself. He'd be fine, she was just annoyed because he'd saved her life and everyone was treating him...well like a criminal.

"We'll show you the way." The man said, his accent Scottish.

"I don't need a medical check up." She snapped at Coulson.

"It's standard procedure." He said. Darcy rolled her eyes but followed Fitzsimmons, who were apparently two separate people, up the ramp anyway.

The labs were only a minute away. They were smaller than Darcy was used to but still their effect was comforting. She knew barely anything about science but she knew labs and the familiar surrounding was nice. She vaguely wondered if that was how Loki felt in a cell and made a mental note never to ask him if she didn't want to leave the conversation in a body bag.

Fitzsimmons shrugged on lab coats as they entered and Darcy stood awkwardly at the side.

"Just sit down here." The woman said, tapping a low counter in the middle of the room. Even so, Darcy had to jump a little bit to reach it. "I'm Simmons by the way. That's Fitz."

Fitz looked up from the cabinet he'd opened and gave her a quick wave. Simmons was smiling so much she thought her face might break.

"Hi." Darcy greeted with an anxious grin. Her anger was fading into contentment. So what Loki was in a cell? It was unjust but it was only for a few hours. At least they were safe. Better in a cell alive than on the run from people intent on killing you.

The plane suddenly jolted and Darcy clung onto the edges of the table. "What was that?" She asked, her voice rising to an incredibly high pitch.  
The plane was now shuddering.

"Oh just take off." Simmons told her.

"You hardly feel it on this plane." Fitz added.

"Oh." Darcy said, slightly embarrassed at how she'd reacted. "Okay." She let go of the table edge and tried not to blush.

"So we're just going to run a few tests." Simmons said.

"Nothing to worry about." Fitz added.

"They're all standard procedure."

"We do them all the time."

"Despite neither of us being Doctors."

"Hmm we do a surprising amount of medical work for two scientists."

"We should get paid extra."

"Anyway..."

"Shall we begin?" Simmons finished at last. Darcy's eyes had widened slightly. It was official. All scientists were insane.

"Uh sure." Darcy answered.

Fitz picked up a rod which was glowing purple slightly and waved it up and down in front of her. Darcy felt slightly self conscious with them both staring at her like that. They seemed nice, she supposed...in moderation.

"So, you work for Dr Foster?" Simmons asked, picking up a tablet.

"Well with her..." Darcy answered. Technically Jane had higher clearance but given that without Darcy Jane would probably still be moping over Thor she wasn't willing to reduce her role to that.

"Ahh she is so amazing." Fitz said, giving Darcy a final wave.

"Her theories on the Einstein Rosen bridge are inspired." Simmons added, tapping something on the block. "Umm would you mind letting us see your ankle, please?"

Darcy's eyebrows lifted in surprise. "Okay." She said, pulling off her boot.

"And Foster Theory was pure genius." Fitz continued.

"Yeah she's great." Darcy said fondly, resisting the urge to make a comment on her ability to focus on anything other than science or Thor. It hadn't even been twenty four hours and Darcy just really missed her.

Simmons was bending over her ankle, unwrapping the bandages. "These have practically been professionally done."

"Yeah Loki did them." Darcy replied. Fitz and Simmons froze and looked at her in shock.

"He bandaged your ankle?" Fitz asked.

"Loki?" Simmons added.

"As in Destroyer-of-New-York-Loki?"

"Bandaged your ankle?"

"Really?" They asked in unison.

Darcy bit back a smile. Fitz and Simmons ought to either hate each other or love each other. Watching them, Darcy decided it was definitely the latter. And it was the kind of slow moving adorable love where they held hands and went on dates and did cute stuff like that. Or as Darcy liked to refer to it, the love that sounds great in theory until you get horny.

"Yeah." Darcy said. "He's really not that bad."

"Not that bad?" Fitz stuttered.

"Well to me." Darcy ventured. She wasn't sure if they had the clearance to know about the charm or not.

"Oh yes." Simmons said. "The magic thing."

Fitz looked at her curiously. "I forgot about that."

"I wonder if there is any sign of it."

"We could run a few tests?"

"Ohh the radio-"

"Guys!" Darcy interrupted. "I'm right here! And I'm not a science experiment!"

"Oh right." Said Simmons.

"Sorry."Added Fitz.

Darcy rolled her eyes. _Scientists_.

"Can I ask you guys something?" Darcy asked. "How did you find Loki and I anyway?"

"Oh well," Fitz said excitedly. "We picked up some unusual energy patterns over here about the same time as the explosion and were sent to check them out. We ended up in this wood or something." Darcy tried not to look like this meant anything to her but it looked like they'd gone to the same one her and Loki had ended up in. "Then we got the message that you and Loki were missing and we thought it might have something to do with it so we kind of just circled the area until we saw this gold beam leading to a field near where we found you."

So they'd seen Sif too. Or her transport at least.

Darcy looked curiously over at Simmons who'd been surprisingly quiet for all of Fitz's speech.

She was looking from Darcy's ankle to the tablet while Fitz measured her pulse with a metal thing on her wrist.

"This is really odd." Simmons told Fitz. He moved over to look at the tablet.

"Umm sorry? What's odd?" Darcy asked, tying to keep her voice at a steady pitch. That was kind of the last thing she wanted to hear while having a medical examination.

Fitz's eyebrows had furrowed as he stared at the screen and the corners of Simmons' mouth were turned down thoughtfully.

"We could try x-rays?" Fitz suggested.

"Or an MRI scan?"

"Blood samples?"

"Cell scanning?"

"Or," Darcy interrupted. "You could tell me what is going on?"

They shared a look of worry before turning to her.

"You appear to be radiating energy." Simmons told her.

Darcy scowled in confusion. "So?" That didn't really mean much to her but she did know a bit from high school physics and just generally hanging around Jane and Selvig. Wasn't, like, everything energy? Light and heat and stuff? All humans radiated that. "It's not nuclear is it?"

"Well that's the thing..." Fitz said awkwardly, absently scratching at his wrist.

"It's not anything." Simmons added, looking at the tablet.

Darcy narrowed her eyes at them. "So I'm radiating energy but it's not anything?"

"Oh I'm sorry." Simmons said worriedly. "We didn't really explain that very well did we?"

"Not really, no." Darcy replied. She found she couldn't really get worked up about it. She'd just had the weirdest twenty four hours of her life. Why not add radiation to the mix? It worked out pretty well for Banner...

"Well we have readings for radiation. All the different types seem to be about average for a normal human." Fitz explained. "The thing is, the total is a lot higher than it should be. It's like there's another type being picked up but not identified."

"Very similar to the energy we detected in the forest. It's present everywhere." Simmons said, gesturing to Darcy. "Although there does seem to be a heavier concentration around your ankle but all I could find was some faint bruising which definitely wouldn't be responsible for it."

"Umm." Darcy started, a blush threatening to creep into her cheeks. "My ankle got injured in the explosion. Loki kinda healed it." She winced as they looked at her in shock again. If they'd barely been able to handle the news of Loki bandaging her ankle they were completely startled by the fact that Loki had used magic to heal it.

_Loki,_ she thought absently_, why can't you just act how we'd all expect you to?  
_

She realised that would mean mass destruction and quickly amended it to _behaviour they wouldn't find shocking.  
_

They looked at each other as though to check the other one was just as surprised as they were before returning to Darcy. Simmons swallowed.

"Well...that could explain it." Simmons said then began to smile and looked excitedly at Fitz. "What if we could identify it?"

Fitz frowned at her. "Why would we mess around with magic?"

"But imagine if we could isolate it and-"

"Jemma the last time we went near anything like that you almost died!"

Simmons sighed. "Oh Fitz, that was one time!"

"Twice!" Fitz retorted, staring at Simmons like she was insane. "You almost died twice! Once from that virus and once from jumping out of the plane!"

Wait? Scientist Simmons jumped out of the plane? Woah. Darcy wondered what freaky circumstances lead to that but after her experience with SHIELD decided some things were better left unsaid.

Simmons rolled her eyes and turned away, arms folded. "Just imagine if we could manipulate it." She said, back still turned.

"It's too much." Fitz argued. "At least right away, we'd have to do some serious energy research first. Get in touch with Stark and Selvig."  
Simmons span. "So you think we should do it?"

Darcy observed their conversation like it was happening on TV.

Fitz's lips pressed into a thin line. "We could look into it." He said reluctantly.

Simmons practically squealed. Darcy grinned, another thing which was familiar: scientists getting excited over science.

"And kiss." Darcy said. Both of them jumped as though they'd forgotten she was there before looking at each other and then away again, blushing. Darcy smirked. They were cute together.

"You can put your boot back on now." Simmons told her, seemingly suddenly realising that Darcy was still there. Fitz looked at her too as she reached for her shoe, she could feel their eyes on her.

She zipped up her boot and when she looked up she saw that Fitz was fumbling with a thin silver rod while Simmons rummaged through a different cabinet. So they hadn't been watching her...Darcy picked at the hem of her jumper. There was a slight chance she'd become ever so slightly paranoid in the last day. Or maybe it was since Loki. Either way she figured someone as hyper as her really didn't need paranoia as well.

"This may hurt slightly." Fitz said, gingerly picking up her hand and pricking her index finger with the silver rod. Darcy almost laughed. After having her ankle crushed that was nothing.

Darcy had warmed up a bit since entering the plane but the cold from the metal table was now seeping through her jeans.

A screen in the top corner of the room flicked on and the three of them looked up. The dark haired woman who'd arrested Loki was on screen, not looking at it but at somewhere slightly to the right.

She had a headset on and was busy doing what looked like flying the plane. Darcy severely hoped she was wrong about that. The last thing she needed was their pilot delivering the in flight entertainment.

Fitz and Simmons looked at each other in confusion and then back up to the screen.

"I didn't know she could do that, did you?" Fitz whispered to Simmons.

"Nope." Simmons answered.

"How long have you been on this plane?" Darcy asked in dismay.

"A month." Simmons answered.

Darcy shook her head in dismay. Was this what Coulson had spent his 'not being dead' time doing?

"Is everyone listening?" The woman on screen demanded.

"Yes." Ward's voice sounded.

"Uh yeah?" A woman's voice asked uncertainly and Darcy wondered if Fitzsimmons were the only ones who didn't know about this feature of the plane.

"I'm here." Coulson said.

Fitz and Simmons looked at each other. "Yes?" Simmons asked hopefully. Her voice echoed back from the screen.

"Oh great we're being listened to." Darcy muttered, if there was one thing that had been nice about being on the run it was not having to worry about what they said in case someone listened in.

"We had a message from SHIELD headquarters. We need to go to New York after New Mexico." The woman said.

"Stark?" Coulson asked.

"Yes. An emergency apparently though we aren't needed immediately." The woman said. "We should be fine to go to New Mexico first as long as nothing changes. Especially given our current passenger." Darcy somehow didn't think they were talking about her.

"Details?" Ward asked.

"I'll patch them through, one moment." She answered.

The screen flickered and she was gone. In her place were several rectangles of footage showing some kind of fight. Iron Man like suits were flying round fighting actual people in the top corner. The people were glowing orange and fighting with, well, fire. They seemed practically indestructible jumping back up whenever they were knocked over and regrowing body parts even as they were blasted off.

Along the edge a figure in another of the metal suits was strung over a vat of oil, long strands of rope connecting him to the scaffolding on either side. A man was running along the edge, trying to untie the ropes. Darcy couldn't be sure but she thought the person in the suit looked an awful lot like the president.

There was text in the central panel but Darcy was too far away to read it. She felt slightly guilty for trying because she was certain she didn't have the clearance but...well she'd always been too curious for her own good. In fact she probably wasn't supposed to be seeing this at all.

And along the bottom more of the robots or suits were swarming but this time it was around three people. They were all beaten and bloodied. One looked like Tony Stark but he wasn't in his iron man suit. His presence explained the rest of the suits, at least. One of them didn't make any sense. It looked like Pepper Potts in yoga pants and glowing red but...that really really didn't make any sense whatsoever. Pepper was far too business minded for that. Darcy had only met her a few times and that was one fact of which she was certain. The third person seemed to be half fire, as Darcy watched the Pepper looking one attacked him. Definitely not Pepper then.

Darcy glanced at Fitz and Simmons who both looked just as confused as Darcy felt. Last she'd heard Stark was presumed dead, now he was in the middle of some kind of battle with mutants?

When did life stop making sense?

The screen flickered back to the original person.

"May, can you send me the information?" Coulson asked.

"And me." Ward added.

"And me." The female voice added.

"You don't have the clearance for this, Skye." Coulson told her.

"I don't have the clearance for anything and yet here I am, on this plane!" She retorted.

"Skye, do you have to do this over the intercoms?" Ward sighed.

"You want to do this in person?" Skye said cheerily. "Great."

"The information," May interrupted, annoyed. "Is being sent to those of you with clearance. Which would be everyone but Skye. And Darcy." She added as an afterthought.

Darcy scowled. She could hardly wave the information in front of her then deny it.

The screen clicked off.

"Did he say May?" Darcy asked Fitzsimmons. "As in Melinda May? As in The Cavalry?"

"Yeah she kind of flies the plane." Fitz said.

"You have The Cavalry as a pilot? As in the woman that trained Romanoff?"

"That's the one." Simmons said. Her eyes flickered quickly to Fitz. "Um Darcy?"

Darcy's eyes narrowed at her suspiciously. "Yeah?"

"Well your medical is done." Fitz said.

"And we kind of have some information to go through." Simmons added.

"Information that you don't have clearance to."

"So umm would you mind..."

"Leaving?" Fitz asked cautiously.

Darcy tried not to laugh. "You mean you can't tell me what's going on and want me to leave so you can discuss it? It's fine. Believe me, it's really not my first time." She hopped off of the table.

"Thanks." Simmons said.

"We'll show you to the common room." Fitz said.

"Skye should be there. You can hang out with her." Simmons said with a smile as they walked down the halls. They clearly both felt bad about Darcy having to leave so she couldn't feel too annoyed with her.

Fitz stopped outside a door and inserted a card from his pocket. "Well here we go."

"It was nice to meet you." Simmons said.

"Yeah you too." Darcy replied.

"See you." Fitz said. They walked away and Darcy could hear them talking science. She smiled and rolled her eyes. _Scientists_ she thought in exasperation.

* * *

Song title from Coldplay's The Scientist. Yeah...please excuse the science in this...AS biology is the extent to my scientific knowledge but I figure if Thor: The Dark World can get away with "gravitational thingies" then I can have magic is energy. As always thanks for reading and reviewing, somedays they're all that keeps me writing.


	20. Chapter 20: Enough To Be Dumbstruck

"Look, you'll get clearance gradually. You can hardly expect to be given access to all of SHIELDs secrets in a few months. Especially given your background." Darcy heard Ward say.

"I get that but everyone else on this plane has access. I'm part of this team too." A female voice answered. Darcy supposed it was Skye as May was flying the plane and Simmons was British.

"And we all trust you." Ward said sternly. "But that doesn't mean you can expect the rest of SHIELD to."

The woman sighed.

"I have to go read the files now, I'll see you later." Darcy heard another door in the room shut.

Happy to have avoided walking in on that confrontation Darcy waited a moment and pushed open the door. The room had the usual curved white edges of a plane but wooden walls separating it from the other rooms. It was bright with lights practically everywhere and white fabric sofas and chairs. In fact the whole place looked like it was either white or dark wood, ultra modern like how Darcy would have expected Tony Stark's plane to look. It was a nice change after the blueness of the lab.

A woman about Darcy's own age sat with her legs stretched out on the sofa, typing something on her laptop. She looked up as she heard the door open and smiled.

"Hey you must be Darcy." She grinned. "I'm Skye."

"Hey um," Darcy started, having trouble thinking of anything other than how awesome the plane was. "I just finished with Fitzsimmons and-"

"And they freaked you out so much you ran to better company? I get that a lot." Skye joked, she put her laptop down next to her and gestured to the seats.

Darcy sat in one of the chairs near her.

Darcy smiled. "Unfortunately I'm way too used to hanging around erratic scientists. But no they sent me here because they had to read that information we're not allowed to see."

"You don't have clearance either?" Skye asked.

"I'm level one." Darcy said. "Need to know only. You?"

"I'm not even that." Skye said. "I'm on probation." She waved her arm where a silver bracelet glittered. Darcy recognised it as a tracking device some of the agents sometimes used.

"Wow." Darcy said. She didn't even know SHIELD did probation, she was under the impression it was kind of a one chance or you're out place. "What did you do?"

Skye shrugged. "It's a long story. I used to work for this group, The Rising Tide." Darcy's eyes widened. "After I left them they kind of did some stuff. We had to hunt them down but uh...my boyfriend still worked for them. I warned him and I uh got caught."

Darcy tried not to convey any emotion. Having just been in several life threatening situations she was prepared to be annoyed at anyone with any connection with that group. Not that she knew they were behind it but they could have been.

Skye seemed nice though so she cast around for something else in what she'd said to comment on. "You have a boyfriend?"

"Ex." Skye said firmly.

_Yeah I'll bet_, Darcy thought, thinking of Skye and Ward.

"Anyway, I'm glad you're here actually." Skye said. "I read through your file and-"

"You read my what?" Darcy asked. She wasn't even aware she had a file.

"Your SHIELD file." Skye said. "It said you hacked SHIELD when you were in Norway."

"Umm maybe a bit." Darcy said blushing. Breaking into SHIELD was really not her proudest moment but they'd been desperate.

"Impressive. Do you know much about programming?" Skye asked.

"Really no." Darcy answered. "I just used some stuff I learnt at college. I did the website design for student societies and stuff."

"And that helped you hack SHIELD?" Skye asked looking seriously impressed. Darcy smiled, while she wasn't necessarily proud that she _had_ hacked SHIELD, she was proud that she was _able_. Like an "I tasered Thor" kind of proudness. "Wow, it took me like five years. That's how I got on SHIELD's radar. I hacked them." Skye said bluntly.

Darcy's eyes widened in understanding. "Are you telling me that they put two of the only people to successfully hack SHIELD in a room together after telling them they weren't allowed access to really cool information?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying." Skye said with a mischievous grin that reminded her of Loki. She wondered how he was doing in the cell but figured two hours to an immortal God was nothing. "So what do you say? Fancy some access to that stuff we're not supposed to know about?"

"Yeah!" Darcy said excitedly. "Umm I don't think I'll be much help though."

Skye shrugged. "Maybe but at least if it's both of us then it's shared blame." She patted the sofa next to her and budged up to make room for Darcy who got up to sit next to her.

Skye pushed her laptop over so that Darcy could see what she was doing.

Darcy was right. She wasn't much help. What Skye was doing was well beyond Darcy's level of skill. Norway hadn't been hard because literally every communication in SHIELD was about what was happening in New York, clearly this stuff was a lot more discreet and a lot harder to get into.

The laptop screen was a blur of black and green as Skye typed. Occasionally she'd get stuck and pause or groan and start again. Darcy was content to watch in amazement. Why was everyone so talented when Darcy's only skill was making killer playlists?

After about half an hour Skye swore and shoved her laptop onto the coffee table angrily.

"I can't get onto it." She fumed. "It's too well protected."

"Well you got further than I ever would be able to." Darcy said in an attempt to cheer Skye up. "What is it you were doing, anyway?" She added curiously.

Skye pushed her hair back in annoyance. "I was hacking into the core of the network, where the information is stored. It's like a maze. I'd need to write a program to crack it and even then it would take at least a few days and that's without the security codes changing every few seconds."

Darcy bit her lip for a moment, she had an idea but Skye knew about a gazillion times more about computers than she did, she didn't want to sound stupid.

Then she decided that sounding stupid wouldn't exactly be a first for her. "What if you could hack someone who had access to the information rather than the information itself?"

Skye's eyes widened momentarily before breaking into a grin so big it made Fitzsimmons look grumpy. "Darcy that's...that's brilliant!" She told her before reaching for her laptop and typing rapidly.

Darcy smiled happily. _Brilliant_. She could get used to that.

"We're in!" Skye squealed. Darcy leant over to read the words that now filled the space on the monitor.

It was a load of stuff about Stark. From what Darcy understood, a lot of it required previous knowledge or understanding which she didn't have, The Mandarin was a cover from some group called Extremis who'd been genetically engineering people with side effects of them blowing up. The president had been attacked and apparently, Pepper had been kidnapped and turned into one of them and Stark had attacked a load of them with Christmas baubles.

Darcy would have thought she would be used to weirdness by now.

She kept reading, the footage now making sense until she reached one sentence that was just too weird. _Preliminary medical tests on Stark suggest he may be suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder._ Tony Stark? PTSD? Darcy felt her eyebrows rise. The people with mental illnesses always surprised her..._nope...not going to think about that_, she told herself. _Nope nope. Think of Christmas baubles._

"I used to think that the public needed to know all the information SHIELD kept secret." Skye told Darcy. "Now that I'm a part of SHIELD I realise that some things are definitely better kept secret."

"You regret reading it?" Darcy asked with a smirk.

"No." The other woman said with a grin. "No I want to know but could you imagine how much the public would freak out if they knew all this stuff had happened?"

"True." Darcy conceded, her thoughts wandering to a certain other person whose involvement in a certain attempt at world domination had been hidden from the public. "Sometimes secrets are necessary."

"That was genius though. You think like a hacker. If you ever want to learn I'll happily show you." Skye closed her laptop. "Right. If they ask we didn't read it."

Darcy's insides squirmed in slight alarm. She'd somehow managed to forget the fact that what they were doing would get them into a load of trouble if they were caught. Not that it would have stopped her but she really had to stop being so impulsive or it would get her too many problems.

"Oh...What would happen if they found out?" She wasn't that worried for herself, oddly Loki was as much her leverage as she was his. Skye however was already on probation.

She waved the question away as though it were unimportant. "Oh I'll probably get an "I'm disappointed in you" from Coulson and shouted at by Ward."

The corner's of Darcy's lips were tugging into a slight smile. "You spend a lot of time with Ward?"

"Quite a lot I guess. He's my supervising officer."

"Mmmhmm. And I'm sure that's all he is." Darcy said with a pointed look at Skye. "What?" Skye asked quickly. "What else would he be?"

"Puh-lease." Darcy said. "You and Ward are perfect together."

"Ward?" Skye repeated, aiming for disgust but Darcy didn't believe her.

"So you have Fitzsimmons. Are you two Skyeward? Skard?"

"No!" Skye protested. "I mean, don't get me wrong I like him but he's got an emotional wall the size of the empire state building."

Darcy tried not to grin. She knew another guy who fit that description. "Yeah but he totally likes you." She argued.

"How would you even know? You've been here like half an hour."

Darcy grinned. "I notice things. And I've met him before. The most arrogant person I've ever met. Flirts with anything that moves."

"Ward? Grant Ward?" Skye asked. "Have we met the same person?"

"See that's my point. He's still arrogant obviously, same aloofness in that 'my job is more important than yours' kind of way."

"That's not fair," Skye argued. "It kind of is and you don't know his past."

Darcy smirked. "Are you defending him?"

Skye bit her lip to stop from smiling. "See, you do like him." Darcy said.

"No no." Skye muttered but they both knew she wasn't being entirely truthful. "But even so, he doesn't like me. _Like like _me that is."

Darcy leant back in her chair. "See this is my point. Something's changed in Ward. He's gone from 'I save the world everyday, you're welcome, now adore me' to 'I save the world everyday but please don't mention it' and let me tell you that kind of change does not come easily. I'd say something had happened to him." She grinned at Skye. "Or someone."

"That's ridiculous." Skye said, her gaze dropping to the floor.

"The last time I met him he told me he knew over seven hundred karate moves but that he'd saved a few moves of a different kind just for me."

"Eww he said that?"

"Yep. And now he's barely glanced at me. But you should see the way he looks at you."

Skye smiled and shook her head. "I guess you'd know all about guys who hide their emotions. After all, yours is in a cell right?"

Darcy felt her eyebrows rise. She hadn't expected this change in the conversation. "Loki? Just a friend."

"Oh he so is not." Skye argued, grinning now that it was her turn.

"Honestly, the guy-" What? She'd been about o make a reference to his craziness or his moodiness but she'd got past that to be friends with him. She didn't really care herself and if anyone else had said it she would have defended him. Darcy just wasn't mean about her friends. Well in a non jokey way at least...

"Just no..." She said rather pathetically.

"You are so into him." Skye grinned at her.

Darcy felt herself blush. "I'm not."

"The way you defended him to Coulson?"

"The way I'd defend a friend!" Darcy protested.

"Coulson goes on about that guy like, at least once a day. 'I got stabbed!' 'I almost died!'" She said, imitating Coulson in an over the top low voice. "From what I hear, even befriending him is impressive."

"Yeah but that's it. That's all there is to it." Darcy told her.

Skye smirked at her again. "Nuh uh. Even talking about him your eyes are lighting up."

"They are not." Darcy said with an eye roll, now Skye was just being ridiculous.

"They are. And you can't deny that your cheeks are." Skye pointed out and Darcy felt herself blush more. "He likes you too."

"Okay now you're definitely wrong."

"So I wasn't before?" Skye said with a laugh at the look of horror on Darcy's face. "Doesn't he like, hate everyone? If he has ever shown you the slightest moment of affection, the slightest weakness, anything at all then it means he cares for you a heck of a lot more than you are willing to believe."

Darcy shook her head. "That doesn't mean a thing."

Skye smiled knowingly. "You have a crush on him."

"I don't." Darcy said, again. Even as she said it though she felt his arms around her, his breath on her cheek as he spoke to her. She could smell the intoxicating mix of his leather and soap and sweat. She could hear his taunting as he helped her fire a gun. She saw him smile and remembered every time she'd ever felt like she could drown in his gorgeous laugh or get lost in his eyes.

_Shit.  
_

_Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. _

"Shit" She said out loud as though containing that one thought was too much.

"Fuck." Skye said next to her, copying her tone exactly. The women looked at each other in horror.

"I think I have a crush on Ward." Skye said as though this statement was horrifying.

"There's a slight possibility that I like Loki." Darcy said, Skye's confession prompting her own.

"We're screwed." Skye said.

"Well...not yet." Darcy replied, unable to resist the perfect opportunity.

"Darcy!" Skye said, shocked before they both dissolved into laughter. "Oh my God I can't believe this."

"I...how..." Darcy managed.

"I need a drink." Skye said, walking over to a cabinet at the side. "You want one?"

"Oh god yes." Darcy answered, needing anything to get that thought out of her mind. Liking Loki was like that embarrassing crush you had when you were twelve only worse because you ought to have a reasonable opinion by the time you were an adult. _Fuck_.

She started pacing the plane, unable to remain seated.

"What do you want?"

"The strongest thing you've got." Darcy answered. Skye pulled out two glasses and filled them with an amberish liquid.

"I need to distract myself." Skye said.

"A distraction. Good." Darcy answered. Why the hell had this revelation panicked her so much? Was it really because he had such a poor reputation?

Well partly, a part in her brain admitted. Mostly it was the fact that Loki was off limits. Not because of his actions but because he would never ever like her back. She was like a pet to him. Someone he was slightly fond of. Someone utterly beneath him, in his stupid mind at least. And most importantly someone he would happily cast away should he have to.

He'd saved her but he'd had no choice. They had that magic thing.

If he could have escaped SHIELD, with his magic restored, Darcy had no doubt in her mind that he would.

That calmed her slightly. Loki was never going to like her. At least she didn't have to put up with the constant "what ifs." and "maybes".  
Skye handed her a glass.

"To shitty crushes." Darcy said, raising it.

"Too true." Skye said, knocking hers against Darcy's. They both took a few large sips.

Darcy continued pacing. "This just makes no sense. I don't get crushes."

"Me neither." Skye said. "Normally by the time I like guys they already like me so we go straight to dating."

But that wasn't true for Darcy. She chose her boys based on difficulty and looks, getting bored of them just as quickly as she could get into them.

And how did she feel towards Loki? She really wasn't sure. There was definitely something there. A warm fuzzy feeling of safety and happiness that she got when she thought of him. An almost giddy feeling.

But if she couldn't define her feelings then maybe they didn't matter? She could definitely put up with the butterflies if they were it.

Comforted by the fact her feelings for him weren't as great as she'd feared, she took a few more sips.

She'd have to get rid of the crush or whatever it was, though. Like she'd realised earlier, he would never feel anything so what point was there to her liking him? And even worse was the fact that the feeling made her feel vulnerable and she didn't like that. Not at all.

She liked not needing anyone. She didn't want a relationship. She looked at couples who are so sappily in love, hello Jane and Thor, that they practically come apart when they are away from each other. Why on Earth would Darcy risk that?

She finished her glass.

"So what are you going to do?" Darcy asked Skye.

Skye took a long gulp. "See if I can work out if he likes me back? I mean I'm not too bothered, I came here to find out about my parents, they worked for SHIELD. I have more priorities than romance. What about you?"

"Try to get out more. Apparently only seeing one guy," Darcy deigned not to include any SHIELD employees in this. "For months is not good for my judgement."

"Sounds good. More alcohol?" Skye asked as she too finished her drink. At that moment, however, the plane juddered like it had earlier. "Oh we're landing." Skye said, taking Darcy's glass and placing it on the side.

The door opened and Coulson walked in. His eyes wandered to the empty glasses on the side. "You look like you've been having fun."

"Oh yeah, a party." Skye muttered. Darcy tried not to smile.

"Well we've landed." Coulson told her. "I'm afraid I'll have to escort you into the compound, Miss Lewis. We just have a few questions to ask you."

"Seriously? You think I attacked SHIELD?"

"If we thought that then you would be in a cell right now rather than in here." He said.

"Wait, you don't think that Loki did it do you?" Darcy asked. 'Standard procedure' her ass, she'd been a fool to trust them.

"We have a few questions to ask him too." Coulson said. "We think it more likely he had something to do with it than you did though honestly we do not believe either of you played a part. We only put him in a cell because of his dangerous past."

Darcy rolled her eyes. SHIELD were more than happy to use Loki for his help in the labs but they'd still rather he stayed in a cell. They were such hypocrites.

"I guess this is goodbye then." Skye said, interrupting them and looking at Coulson with an expression almost identical to her own "be nice!" face she often gave Loki. "I hope I see you again soon. This was fun."

"Yeah, you too." Darcy said, meaning it too. Despite their topic of conversation, she quite liked Skye.

"Miss Lewis if you'd like to come this way." Coulson said. Darcy sighed and followed him.

* * *

Chapter title from Bastille's The Silence. I wrote this before the second half of the agents of shield series so some stuff may not fit in with new developments. I probably won't be able to update again until next week because I have a load of school work but thank you for reading and reviewing.


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